News Abroad

LIGHTHOUSE TO LIGHTHOUSE 2006

I have recently returned from a wonderful “trip of a lifetime” in New Zealand. The trip had been organised by the same people who had arranged a North Island tour in 2000 and a South Island tour in 2003. This time there were 50 guiders and friends participating in the North Island tour and just 10 of us touring the South Island.

I started my trip with a 2 night stay in Singapore, where I viewed as much as the city as I could. In fact I did 3 daytime tours and a night safari and also visited Chinatown and had time for a gin sling at Raffles’ famous long bar. The night safari was amazing – this was a trip to a zoo that was only open at night; I experienced flying foxes gliding above my head and a very close encounter with a tiger! Singapore is such a safe, clean city. In 3 days, I didn’t hear a single siren, see any graffiti, or litter anywhere. If a leaf dared to fall from a tree, it was pounced on by 2 gardeners!

Having spent a total of 24 hours in the air, it was most pleasant to arrive in Wellington. The weather was warm and sunny – so it was lovely to sit outside and sip a glass of merlot in the evening (in February!!) Wellington is renowned for being windy, but it wasn’t a cold wind.

The next day I met the rest of the group and we chatted and exchanged travel stories as though we had known each other all our lives! There were guiders from Australia, Canada, Scotland, England, South Africa and USA

The next morning we saw the area around Wellington and travelled on the cable car to the top of the city and walked back through the botanic gardens and the rose garden. We then spent a fascinating afternoon in the “Te Papa” museum where it was very evident that Maori culture is very highly regarded. After a second night in the hotel we left early, braving the rush hour (a volume of traffic we’d expect here in the school holidays!) and travelled up Mount Rimutaka where there were spectacular views. There certainly wasn’t much traffic along the road we took to get to Cape Palliser (the most southern tip of North Island) – the sheep were thoroughly alarmed by our coach! At the Cape, I climbed the 288 steps to the lighthouse and then we had a Thinking Day service on the beach – watched by the seals.

Next day was for adventure! Some did a bush walk, some went kayaking and I joined a group going quad-biking. Not little ones – 350cc full size bikes! After a brief “training course” (which included going down near vertical slopes!), we set off over a sheep farm. It was an amazing 2 hours. We travelled up and down hills and along rivers and over hills again. The weather wasn’t that kind to us, however, as a Southerly gale swept down the valley and soaked quite a few of our group. The bikers had taken shelter, due to the weather-reading of our guide!

Over the next few days, we travelled north. Lake Taupo was absolutely beautiful and the volacanic activity was very evident in the surrounding area. A place called Orakei Korako was full of boiling springs and silica terraces, with the occasional spouting geyser and this gave a preview of Rotorua. The first thing to notice about Rotorua was the sulphurous smell - bad eggs!! Here we had a ride on a sea-plane and had a birds eye view of the volcanoes and then visited a Maori village, where the art of beautiful carving is still taught. The geysers erupted right on cue and were just as spectacular as I’d hoped. The Maori people are extremely proud of their culture and are delighted to be able to tell visitors all about it. They are able to make you feel that you are the first group they have described anything to – not the 101st!

The next day we visited the set of “Hobbiton” as used in the Lord of the Rings film. This showed how much care was taken with finding the exact spot that Tolkein was probably thinking about. The care taken, for example, in creating an oak tree – that is mentioned in the book and seen in the film for 30 secs, is phenomenal!

Auckland was an amazing place, clearly built around an extinct volcano. The traffic was just as bad here as at home – quite a shock as it had been so light up till then! We were able to have a panoramic view of the city from the Sky tower and enjoyed visiting their two cathedrals. New Zealanders literally “move house” – they pick them up and relocate, so that’s what they did with their old wooden cathedral! They moved it across the road to be near their new one.

Each day brought more superlatives! We visited the Kauri museum at Matakohe; a surprising place filled with the history concerning these great trees and examples of the furniture, tools and staircases made from it. A boardroom table able to seat 18 made from a single piece of wood! A 1500-year-old tree in the rainforest was also a spectacular site.

The next part of our trip was along the coast, to a resort of Paihia where we enjoyed a trip around the Bay of Islands, watching dolphins swim in the incredibly blue sea. One of our trips was in the “Cape Runner”; a coach along “90 mile beach”, at the edge of the sea. It was 1½ hrs off high tide, but the sea was coming in fast. At one point, we had to wait for a wave to recede before the coach could move around a rock. The coach came off the beach along a river – washing the underneath of the vehicle as it did so! It was on this day that we reached the most northerly point of N Island – the lighthouse at Cape Reinga.

Then it was back to Auckland and the farewell dinner and the group split up to continue their various trips, having travelled 1000 miles together through North Island. The 10 of us flew to Christchurch to start the South Island tour.

South Island is very different from the North. There is a great deal of rain forest and native bush and fewer large towns. It is also generally cooler (It sounds really odd to go south to get colder!)

Christchurch is now the centre for Antarctic Travel. Most nationalities travel to their bases in Antarctica from Christchurch airport, so it was not unusual to see a US military plane. We visited the Antarctic Centre and saw the history of Antarctic exploration together with the reports and experiments of present day scientists. Experiencing -25 in a simulated storm was interesting, but not pleasant!

To add to the plane, boat and coach journeys, today we took a train ride on the Trans-Alpine scenic railway. This crossed the Southern Alps and finished 170 miles later on the west coast at Greymouth. We travelled south and our motel for the night was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by spectacular scenery.

There are only 3 glaciers in the world that are surrounded by rainforest and New Zealand has 2 of them. We were able to fly over the Franz Josef glacier in a helicopter and land on it! The weather was absolutely perfect, blue skies and little winds – this was amazing as the day before it had been pouring with rain and it was wet the day after.

We continued south and into the Mount Aspiring national park where we were able to see beautiful lakes and mountains. Queenstown was our next destination and this was the area where the majority of the filming for Lord of the Rings had been located. You could almost see the hordes of Orcs and Elves!

This is the area for huge sheep farms – there are 9 acres to the sheep and the usual flock is around 2000! I visited a sheep farm, which was across Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown, travelling there by ancient steamship. The farmer also had herds of Highland cattle and deer.

There was even more spectacular scenery to see, azure blue lakes and a magical view of Mount Cook through a halo of cloud. The mountains gave way to plains – again used in “the” film and the feeling of space was amazing.

Although only 30% of New Zealand’s population live in South Island, it is responsible for generating 90% of the electricity for the whole country. We saw several hydro-electric installations and the new towns especially built for the employees.

The trip was nearly at an end and we returned to Christchurch to spend a final afternoon visiting the Arts and Craft centre and travelling on the old tram. We all said our farewells at our last dinner together and the next day we were transferred to Christchurch airport for the journey home. We said we would all keep in touch – and we have! There is a group set up on E-mail and messages and photos are rushing about the airwaves.

When I arrived home I realised why my case was so heavy – 100s of postcards, souvenirs and badges! I had also taken about 600 photos and have a memory full of wonderful images! I had said it was a “once in a lifetime trip”, but I’m going again in 2009!
Karolyn Culverwell