Dave says:
We’ve been heading south and south and south. We’ve been to the most southerly part of the south island, then headed north to the south pole.
In the southern hemisphere south doesn’t mean more warmth. The further south we headed the worse the weather became. All the way down the west coast the weather is affected by a mountain range just a few kilometers from the ocean so it does nothing but rain, then you get a little break in Queenstown only to pick up the crappy weather as you head towards the armpit of New Zealand, the depressing town of Invercargil.
In one way Invercargil should be marveled because it’s founders had the ambition to design a flat town laid out in a grid with wide streets and grand Victorian building facades. Engravings on the facades proudly exclaim the businesses that owned them and the buildings are named after important people of the time. And then people just stopped coming to town and the buildings now lie in a state of Victorian decay. Dirty crumbling plaster and rusting ornaments adorn these once proud buildings as they sit on those massive but almost deserted streets. It’s all very depressing and we were glad to only be staying for a night. We went to the movies - that was about all there was to do!!
Next we headed to The Catlins where we found Slope Point, the most southerly part of the southern island. We saw some more bloody waterfalls and took a walk in field with a bunch of sheep. Please note. Sheep look cute at one end and completely lack any form of personal hygiene at the other.
Next we went to Dunedin. Surprisingly this was better than we expected. Here we found the best “alternative” area of all the cities we’d visited. The street we stayed on was like Seattle’s Broadway/The Ave/Fremont. Record stores, cheap eats, funky shopping etc. Strange this little city beats Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch for being hip and cool. We took a creepy night time tour around all of Dunedin’s murder and ghost spots. It was refreshing to hear doom and gloom!!
Next we turned north and headed to the south pole. Well, actually we went to the Antarctic Research Center in Christchurch. Here we learned all about the cool scientific work that goes on in the south pole and how they get the people and equipment there. We even went into this snow chamber where they turn on massive fans so visitors can feel what a minus 25 degree Celsius Antarctic wind storm feels like. It’s cold let me tell you.
Next was a visit to the Christchurch speedway. That was fun. Loud cars zooming around a muddy track whilst the redneck population of the area drank bad beer through the gaps in their teeth. We were covered in mud and partially deaf at the end of the evening but it was $15 well spent and I’m certain we were the only tourists there.
Now we’re in Kaikoura and killing an hour before we swim with the dolphins. Whether the dolphins want to swim with us remains to be seen.
Don’t forget to check out our first gallery and our second gallery and our third gallery and our forth gallery and our fifth gallery and our sixth gallery and our seventh gallery and all our extreme sports mad stuff.
Little did we know that the median age on these tours is about 75. We totally blew their statistical data the day we went. The woman behind us had to repeat every single thing the guide said to her deaf husband - loudly. The couple across the aisle had something terrible in their lungs they had to cough up for 4 hours straight not to mention the elephant call they blew into their cotton hankerchiefs. Most of the bus had support socks pulled to their knees and the women were growing hair where they shouldn’t. Still, the sandbar was lovely and we got to play on really cool sand dunes. And we got cool pictures!