The MON Blogs

After a suspenseful wait, I hereby present the third and final part of my NZ trip report.

Read Part One, and Part Two.

Day 14: Milford Sound – Lake Ohau

This was the longest bus trip of the whole tour – covering a distance of almost 500KM. Curiously enough, we had to pass back through Queenstown to get to Lake Ohau.

To pass the time away, The Lord of the Rings was shown on the bus DVD. Looking at the DVD and out the window had the same view: lots of very large mountains.

During the evening the group decided to find out wether it was possible to climb the ‘mountain’ (read: very steep hill) behind our lodge before sunset and Josh was volunteered for the job – but not without dragging Chris along. They did admirably climbing about 3/4 of the way, but night soon came and they were forced to descend.

Day 15: Lake Ohau – Christchurch

First up this morning, a scenic flight over the Southern Alps and the glaciers. It was nice boarding a plane and knowing this time I didn’t have to jump from it.

The weather this day was perfect – a rare opportunity to see the Alps in all their glory. As part of this flight, we flew over both Franz-Josef and Fox Glaciers – in clear weather they are even more spectacular.

That night we had a farewell dinner – being the last night of the tour – at the Lone Star Cafe in Christchurch. It was a fun, but somewhat sad event knowing that the tour was over and the following day we’d be going our separate ways again.

Day 16: Christchurch – Dunedin

Another bus trip, this time to the city of Dunedin – the Edinburgh of the South – to attend linux.conf.au (see LCA Posts).

Dunedin is the furthest south I travelled on this trip – and the furthest south I’ve ever been – 45°. It was odd having the sun set at almost 10:00PM with twilight dragging on until almost midnight (or low-noon, if you prefer).

Dunedin is largely a university town – being home to the University of Otago (which happens to be the linux.conf.au venue).

Day 17-20: Dunedin

Read my LCA posts for these dates – although mind the technobabble.

Day 21-22: Dunedin – Timaru

We stopped at Timaru for two nights to visit my great-aunt.

Unfortunately, downtown Timaru is a real hive of activity… At 6PM being completely disserted. Thankfully we found a cafe that was actually open!

The following day we went for a walk around the town and back along the headland – loaded with cheese biscuits and date slice we had been provided with the preceding evening.

Day 23: Timaru – Christchurch

Back to Christchurch for a third time! There is nothing much to report on this day. Other than spend morning in Timaru with family, get on bus, get off bus, have dinner and go to bed. Excitement plus!

Day 24: Christchurch – Sydney

The last day of the holiday.

With an afternoon flight, we had enough time that we needed to do something, but not enough time to really go anywhere… So we visited the International Antarctic Centre – conveniently located at Christchurch Airport. The centre serves as the main gateway to Antarctica by air for most countries because Christchurch Airport is the nearest major airport to Antarctica.

We got to experience the bone-jarring fun of a Hagglund – these are those boxy little vehicles they use at the Antarctic research stations. 45 degree slopes are nothing for them! – Makes you want to hold on though…

They also had a room chilled down to -5°C and filled with snow and ice to simulate a ‘warm’ day in Antarctica.  They then add extra wind to simulate a normal day…  ‘Twas chilly.

Later that afternoon we had checked in to our flight at Christchurch Airport – which is a very busy place on a Wednesday afternoon. In the international terminal there was one flight on the indicator boards – both arriving and departing. That was our flight… As a result, the airport was quiet. Only punctuated by the roar of a domestic flight coming or going. Not that our flight was adding any significant numbers of passengers to the airport – we had barely 100 people aboard for our flight home (out of a possible 300 or so passengers…).

When we left the plane in Sydney the contrast in weather was harsh – during the time in NZ the hottest day we had was slightly over 30°C – but with low humidity. The conditions in Sydney this evening: 39°C with 95% humidity. There was water condensing and streaming off the airplane (having been chilled down to -50°C )

Anyway, that concludes my trip report. I hope I have suitably bored you!