Extreme Road Crossing

A few hours before I depart for the South Seas.
Time to quickly report on a New Zealand past time not mentioned in any of the guide books. It goes a little like this

You reach a pedestrian crossing and press the button. At this point the little red and green man circles are dark. As soon as you press the button they light up to either Red or Green. If it's red you will probably be waiting a long time for the light to turn green in order to build aniticipation. Should it be green you need to run for your life. Green does not stay on for long. I've yet to see anyone cross the road with a green light all the way. The same is true if the light naturally turns from red to green. You have little time to cross in!

Ok to be fair after green does come a flashing red man - but you're never sure how long it will be there.

Not to mention the fact that left turning road traffic can still move accross the road even when pedestrians have a green light.

Hence - Extreme Road Crossing.

Riding Along on the Magic Bus

It's been a full week. I'd elected to take a Magic Bus tour (yes they really fo have a bus company called Magic - it's logo is a lizard); around North Island. This didn't mean a clever flying bus, nor a bus able to transport us to magical dimensions (though maybe it did - you should see North Island). Instead the Magic Bus moves you through fantastic destinations with drivers intent on entertaining you. It also had big discounts on some activities. The result was a frantic and fun filled 5 day journey around the North Island.

First up was a view of Auckland from the extinct volcano of Mount Eden, followed by a trip to Waitomo caves, populated by thousands of tiny glow worms. The Worms line the cave roof over a river and feast of on insects brought in by the flow of water and that are then attracted to their greenish light. From my point of view it looked like a eerie night sky. Lots of glowing stars, one or two moving the rest having some depth of perspective created by the cave roof. Beautiful and eerie.

Our acutal destination one was Rotorura. Capital of Maori activity in New Zealand, thermal hotspot extraordinaire and access point to some wonderful locations. I had three nights in Rotorura. Arriving at the start of the evening of the first night with less than an hour to clean up, chat to some American guests and Jack & Di's lodge (a real home from home) and get myself of to a Maori cultural evening and Hangi (a meal cooked on hot stones in a covered pit). What an evening - great food, loads of chat going on between all the guests, and a really interesting and fun performance of traditional Maori culture. During which I got hit by the thought that Welsh or at least Celtic culture was (and is) really similar to Maori tradition and attitude. Over the next few days I talked to a lot of people who would share that attitude. It turns out that the Maori have great sympathy for the Welsh - a combination of also having regenerated a language over the past few decades and having a good rugby team. Under no circumstances can conversations about Rugby be avoided in New Zealand.

One the second day it rained. It rained in a way that made the flow of water at Niagara seem insignificant. Still I was an hour or so drive away from Rotorura in Hobbiton. Yes it was THAT day. The day of the Lord of the Rings set tour. Or at least what is left of the set. Actually the fact that the set is there in any form is down to ... the Rain! It seems that rain stopped demolition work after filming, preserving the set to be seen. So perhaps a visit in the rain was appropriate. Most of the set has been removed; but what is left combined with the a fascinating tour really gives some insight to the incredible lengths that were taken to bring Lord of the Rings to the screen. So more fascination,

Rain and tiredness caught up with me for the rest of the day leaving me watching the steam rising. In Rotorura even on a bad day you do not watch the rain falling. One watches the steam rising. The town of Rotorura is slap bang on some seriously big geo-thermal vents. Steam rises out the drains, from cracks in street walls, broken asphalt on the road, peoples gardens and Lake Rotorura itself. There are geo thermally heated bus shelters. The B&B I was in had a natural geo thermal hot tub. People even tap of the vents to make self powered barbecues. Rotorura is geothermal city. There is also a down side, houses sometimes have to be demolished if a vent opens up in the foundations and there are occasional earthquakes. The locals love their geothermal nature so all is not so bad. You do have to watch for the sulphurous rotten egg small that sometimes wafts through the air.

Next day and out to Te Whakarewarewa (pronounced as written - remembering that Wh is an F in Maori). Long place names is also something the Welsh and Maori have in common as the full title really is - "Te WhakarewarewaoteOpeTauaaWahia" (the gathering together of the War Party of the Wahiao". This place really should get together and twin with a certain well known train station. I'd love to see the finished signage for that ! To see the amazing Te Pohutu geyser and it's surrounding thermal area of hot pools, hot falling water and bubbling mud. The weather was good so this turned into a fantastic exploration. Also included was another and very polished Maori concert and a chance to see an actual Kiwi Bird up close. The Kiwi was bigger than I'd realised, standing tall to almost my knee. Maybe a bit bigger than a large chicken. It's a really strange bird to see up close.

And then it was back on the Magic bus to Lake Taupo. With a few stops. First to see a redwood forest. Then to the Wai o Tapa thermic wonderland for the Lady Nelson geyser but perhaps to me more importantly for the big hot lakes and ponds. Permanently covered in steam and coloured strange by rising metal oxides and high temperatures. Of course being a magic bus with well known driver Dangerous Dean at the helm meant that the day would not be complete without something New Zealand being done. I ended up on the Huka Jet. A jet boat ride that stops at the bottom of the Huka falls. Even jet boats have trouble going up waterfalls - despite a top speed of around 80Kph. The jet boat with it's ability to turn 360 degrees on the spot and also skim and slide almost sideways to the direction of travel made this the single most fun thing I'd done in New Zealand. If you have a chance have a go on a big and powerful NZ jet boat. They are incredible. The rest of the day was more sedate - a walk in the Town of Taupo and a look at the Waikate river. Before meeting up with the bus folks for drinks.

That was really the end of the big fun. The next day was trip to Mount Maunganui via Rotorura and then travel back to Auckland where all i needed to do was a bit of essentials shopping.

Next stop - Fiji!

The Gathering

Just a quick word to all those of you going to the Gathering this year.
Have a great time.
Don't let the LT get you down
Enjoy the battle

But most of all

Whatever you do

Do Not Let Silent Bob do Guard Duty again!

Towers and Volcanoes

I've been in Auckland for a couple of days. Home to lots of sails, a tall tower and quite a few extinct volcanoes. The city is nestled in between ex volcanic peaks. I took a walk up on; Mt Victoria on Sunday. It's not very tall but is quite interesting. Being as it is a near perfect cone. Now grassed over and containing the remains of first a Maori and then a European naval fort. The last fortifications were for use just over a 100 years ago, when New Zealand feared invasion from Russia. Todays the main forts main gun; based in the centre of what would have been the caldera has been restored. It's fascinating. A gun embedded in the top of a hill that fully disappears down into the hill. Quite incredible. There's also an ocean facing bunker that used to contain a gun battery. Now it's used as a folk music club. So.. it's still a scary place.

At Aucklands centre is the Sky City hotel and casino complex. Boasting one of the taller towers in the Southern Hemisphere. Used as a restaurant and bungee jumping platform it's quite an impressive sight. Though I'm sure the rumours that the Kiwi's want to turn it into a space elevator to create a orbit to earth bungee platform cannot reallly be true.

Auckland itself reminds me a British city. If a little quiet. Considering that a million people live in an around Auckland it's centre can seem quiet. I think the answer is that the city spreads itself out over quite a large area - and that most of the population don't venture all the way downtown that often.

Not true of foreigners though. Plenty of non New Zealanders in the centre of Auckland. Mostly contemplating things like "do I really want to jump off that building; or should I take a jet boat ride instead?"

Which brings me onto the the subject of rides. I'm about to leave Auckland for a six day tour of North Island that'll see me visiting the depths of the Glowworm caves at Waitmo, the firey pits and sulphurous stench of Rotorua and of course Hobbiton (sssh, I'm hunting hobbits). Hobbits it seems are even rarer on the ground than the little kiwi birds. Oh and a couple of surprise locations.

Done In in Dunedin

On a tight schedule things don't always go to plan. Dunedin had been a planned two night stop, to give me a chance to book ahead a hotel in Auckland, see the city and get out on the local peninsular and see some of the local wildlife - hopefully yellow eyed Penguins and seals; if I was really lucky cruising by the castle was hoped for.

Unfortunately I'd picked up a what I was claiming a very heavy head cold. More like a small dose of flu - if the temperature I was running was anything to go by. In fact one look at me on my second day in Dunedin and the lady at the booking desk politely recommended that I not go clambering over an exposed coastline and instead rest up in my motel. That would turn out to be advice I was forced to follow that afternoon.

The good news is that I did get a hotel booked and I managed to see park of the historic city. Historic in that it holds the oldest university in the island, and is built almost entirely from stone. This is unusual and it really gives Dunedin a different feel. An almost Scottish feel. Of course the gifts loaded with Kilts and Claymors and kiwis wearing kilts helped too.

Sadly most my time was spent sitting done shivering, or lying down feeling very unwell. So there is little I can say; a pity since this was part of the trip with some promise.

The good news was that the journey to Dunedin needs mention. The journey off the Glacier was spend in mostly appalling weather - very heavy rainfalls. The rain though could not take the edge of the scenary. Riding from the glacier we passed mostly through forest. Lots of very dense temperate rainforest. Then through the highest mountain pass in South island (and I think in New Zealand) at about 1700m. Around the pass there were mountains. Lots and lots of tall, jagged and snow capped mountains. In a valley in a middle of the mountains lay Queenstown . I only had one night in Queenstown - but it really looked the part of a snow mad, adventure mad town. Hopefully a good preparation for Auckland.

But I digress - the important part was being blown away by yet more scenary.

And on leaving Quenstown - yet again far too much beautiful scenary to take in on the road to Dunedin. The same would also be true of the road from Dunedin back to Queenstown.

Bringing me nicely onto a point about all this natural splendour. I'd been told that New Zealand was a lot like Wales. This would be true, if Wales had been taking steriods for the past few tens of millions of years. If the IOC drug tested the New Zealand countryside in a natural wonder olympics - New Zealand would fail. It's simply far too much variety and scale pushed into a small space.

I'm scheduled for North Island. I wonder now what that will be like.

Robzilla Vs the Glacier

A couple of days ago I was on Franz Josef Glacier in South Island. Since then I've been more or less on the road, getting to Dunedin. Where I'm spending a day and a half. To get here I've been through just about every type of scenary going. With the possible exception of sandy desert. But who wants sand in their ice cream anyway.

Back to the point

I'd decided to take a helihike onto Franz Josef Glacier. The helihike because it involved a helicopter flight, but more importantly because it got me onto the really interesting ice quite high up the glacier. Walking up there and back - for me at least wouldn't be an option.

It was money well spent.

Our helicopter pilot after a flawless lift off buzzed the valley walls over the glacier for us before moving on to take a look at mountains looming over Franz Josef (used in LOTR for the fans) and then dropped down to a snow landing - blasting out snow and ice from beneath with copters downdraft.

We were on the ice. Myself, Ule and Anneile (a couple of scandinavian travellers from Stockholm) and our mad ice guide - Sean. Who was determined to find us the best ice slides on the Glacier and who was missing his snowboard (we'd had fresh snow overnight).

There's almost too much to but in this blog regarding what happened next. The ice formations were incredible we got see iris's curved in the ice - think big open arches), wormholes, crevasses, icicles, caves, streams, ice bridges, and ice chimneys . Game for seeing how much we could do the mad fun seeking Sean soon had us pushing or way through tiny wormholes of pure blue ice and up tall, steeply angled chimneys were we needed to use ice axes to haul ourselves up. Fantastic fun. And of course we got to make ice slides. All thats need is a steep slow - no shortage of those on the ice with some snow and a slide was born. It was fantastic fun. A combination of walking, sliding and ice climbing.

I do have one small confession to make. I managed to break the Glacier... Ok I got myself onto some thin ice - only to find one food plunging through it. True to ususal form that was followed by my usual high speed throwing myself in the air response to land in a pile of snow. The bad news was that up to my left knee was covered in ice cold water. Yep it wasn't an open hole I'd found it was an iced over pond. The solution - keep on having fun to keep warm. I think the rest of our little party were a little surprised by the speed at which I'd thrown myself from potential freezing doom. If only they knew my capacity for falling and how I recover from calamity!

Fortunately my little escapade didn't spoil the day and we continued to run over the ice. Getting to see some avalanches in the high mountains above us and an ice fall from the glacier morraine face. This wasn't a small amount of ice that fell. I'm talking about big house sized blocks here. The face of ice I'm talking about is effectively a giant frozen waterfall where ice moves down from the glaciers ice catchment onto the main body of the glacier. It's an enormous wall of ice made of blue ice and also ice made dirty from breaking up rocks beneath it.

Eventually though we made our way back to the helicopter for the flight down. Our pilot had one more surprise. Flying right at a cliff face then popping the helicopter vertically over the top of it at the last minute to reveal dense forest below.

Planning and Plotting and Laundry

I'm in Greymouth where the western forests plunge into the sea. Greymouth has been a centre for mining and way before that an important Maori fort. Today it looks like a cross between a wild west gold rush town and a British seaside resort; with Jade cutting thrown in to boot.

I've been planning here - a hopeful heli-hike onto Franz Joseph Glacier, a night in Queenstown and then sometime exploring Dunedin (think Scottish Castles with Penguin and Seal colonies). I'm expecting some diversity over the next 5 days. 5 Days because in 6 days I fly up to Auckland for sometime on New Zealands warmer north island.

I've taken in easy in Greymouth. Seen the town and done some chores. Basically making sure that I can make the most out the next few days of travel and exploration.

Still wondering when Peter Jackson is going to give me a call regarding Robzilla Raids Hobbiton. Still I should make it to Hobbiton for my own exploration a few days after hitting Auckland.

Sorrry about the lack of pictures - loads of cyber cafes - but few locations that I can plug my mac in. I've found a few locations that will give me wireless internet - but only after I pump in a credit card number over an unsecured network. That's not going to happen - wireless operators take note - anyone with any sense isn't going to do any kind of financial transaction over an open network - if you want custom think of alternate billing methods; you are losing money.

Into The Misty Mountains and Beyond

Friday - time to depart (7:40 bus pickup) for my journey by train into the Alps. Almost a disaster - my alarm didn't go off as I'd forgotten to move it from Aussie to New Zealand time. Still - woke up and got ready anyway.

The bus took my to the train and the train ... took me into a wonderland.

This is supposed to be one of the world most amazing train journeys and in terms of scenic splendour it is - easily beating anything I'd seen in Australia or Japan so far.

It starts by crossing the Canterbury plains towards the mountains. The moutains rise like a long, solid and jagged wall on the other side. As we cross the plains the trains killer feature is unveiled - the OPEN observation car. That's right they had a car on the train open to the elements. It has a floor, a roof, some railings and not much else. It's a great platform to take photos from and also a great place to feel the journey. Forget in train comfort. You want to know how cold the mountains are - step out here please! Fortunately my layers of clothing approach to insulation stood me well in the freezing temperatures.

The sheer amount of scenary, the colours and textures of this journey are hard to convey so I hope the photos taken come out well and do it some justice. We're talking wide, clean rivers, tall craggy peaks, multi coloured stone, dense forests, waterfalls and snow!

Unbelievable.

I'm not on the west coast of New Zealand and for the safety of myself and others (plus any unsuspecting ski lodges) I am forgoing attempts to snow board. The plan is to climb the Franz Josef glacier instead!

New Zealand - the arrival

Left Australian soil in my socks. Well I keep setting off metal detectors so airport security keeps putting my shoes through X Ray machines

The trip to New Zealand was different.
I suspect that may hold out for the whole trip to the two islands

It started by me being sat next to Hank. A retired miner who according to all his stories has worked all around the South Pacific and Australia. He had loads of classical tall tails. Most of them involving beer, beaten up old aircraft and headhunters!

However even Hank went quiet when we flew over the South Island Alps on our approach to Christchurch. It started with the clouds having some white pointy bits in them. Swiftly followed by the realisation that clouds don't have pointy bits. Then the cloud cover broke for a series of stunning views of the South Island Alps. These mountains are tall, steeo, snow capped and just go on forever. They were used to create the Misty Mountains in Lord of the Rings and I don't think the film makers needed use much in the way of special effects. Incredible.

Anyway - reached Christchurch. A short bus ride got in me into the City. First sign post other than for Chirstchurch itself was for a place called Bryndwr. Talk about home from home.

Christchurch it turns out is a really nice city. Think of it as being a bit of a cross between Oxford and Bath. I spent a very pleasant time exploring the city and around. Including more restored 1920's trams!. And started making plans for the rest of my stay as I had arrived with only 2 nights booked accomodation. Still - no problem as that was sorted out very easily. Think I'm getting the hang of this arriving and sorting out places to stay lark.

My First plan - going accross the Alps in the famous TranzScenic train.

In Rehearsal

Last few days in Australia
A quick spate of shopping and back to my favourite walk around Circular Quay.
Glorious weather too.

Also of course getting myself ready for New Zealand.

Forget Hollywood - I have a film pitch for Peter Jackson. And with Peter (Lord of the Rings) Jackson at the helm it'll be a smash. The movie itself if classically themed. Being a great battle of good against evil, man against camp table. Featuring popular locations, and iconic figures. The title of this film is of course "Robzilla Raids Hobbiton".

I know Peter Jackson can do this, he's proven at both the handling of epic scope - in LOTR and of course his work in low budget horror with Bad Taste will I'm sure stand in him good stead and he's just made King Kong so no problems with monster movies.

Ah I can see it now the irrepressible leveling of underground abodes with round doors during a huge bout of accidental tripping and hiccups.

The Forums

You may have noticed. The Grande Tour forums have been offline for some weeks now. Unfortunately I've had no word from the hosting group, and I've been unable to ascertain why this has happened. However it looks as if something catastrophic has happened since the groups domain also seems to be entirely out of action.

Due to this I've changed the Grande Tour website. The Forum link now directs to page giving instruction on posting comments via this blog for the remainder of the Tour, I hope this makes it possible for some additional discussions to take place.

My apologies to anyone who liked the forum. It may not have carried a lot of posts but I believe that it was liked by some users.

I'm not starting a new forum simply due to time constraints. I need to focus on the trip rather than to either install phpbb on the Grande Tour server or find a new host and configure a new forum. I hope that posting via the blog results in fun and interesting exchanges.

Photo Catchup Complete

A quick update.

I've completed the catch up photograph upload work. This means that photographs of my trip up the East Australian Coastline are now online. The only exceptions are those taken on the Great Barrier Reef. I need to finish off the film and get the underwater camera developed for those. I'll do this as soon as I can. Of course I want to make sure I use the camera in appropriate locations...

Currently - I'm in Sydney working on the New Zealand leg of the Grande Tour.

Bearing the Mark of 42

First of all I haven't annoyed any brain filching mice trying to get onto intergalactic chat shows.

I have been to the Sydney International Boat show, and just to prove it I have the number 42 stamped onto my right hand in pretty indelible ink. To be fair a method of identifying attendees was needed as the show was spread between Darling Harbour and the Sydney Convention Centre. Fortunately right next door to each other. It was a big walk getting around the boats in either venue. Having to travel between venues would really have made the day hard work.

A big show like this means big boats, really big boats. Sail around the world no problem at all sized boats; and in total luxury if you want it. Absolutely amazing. Be it a powered or sail you could get just about whatever you wanted here.

Personally my cheque book doesn't stretch to a huge luxury cruiser. I did find a nice line crossover boats. Part high speed launch - able to water ski from; and part yacht if you fancy a bit of sedate sailing. Very nice idea indeed.

Although in honest truth I was looking for ideas even further down the line. I was checking out touring and surf canoes / kayaks. Some nice long tourers with sails caught my eyes. As did two man go anywhere boats. Also liked the latest in jet boats but that's another and very expensive story.

Also talked to some people rigging sailing dinghies for the disabled about Project Hover. Have say they liked the idea a lot.

By the end of the day tired and aching but a least I'd seen a lot of interesting floating things. Now all I have to do is figure out how to boat bac home.