Saturday 14^th October – Day 15

The alarm went off at 07:00 and Sean and I got up feeling ready for a full day.

After breakfast we headed into Te Anau.  Unfortunately our pre-booked horse riding excursion was cancelled as the wind was still too strong to ride in.  Still, I managed to get a couple of gifts for the folks back home in the only shop that was open in Te Anau.

We decided to head for Queenstown seeing as Te Anau had closed for the weather!  The weather was still scorching but incredibly windy as we pulled up into Queenstown.  The drive had been the most exhilarating of my life and the scenery was just mind blowing – we don’t get anything like this in Scotland!

We arrived at the iSite and managed to book ourselves on a jet boat ride and a canyon swing, which were due to start in fifteen minutes.  We shot down to the jet boating centre and spent the next hour zooming down the river at 80kmh.  The driver, James, writes film soundtracks for his day job, but loved doing 360° turns and soaking everyone in the boat.

Having dried ourselves off we were picked up by the canyon swinging bus.  After a short trip we arrived at the canyon we were meant to swing across.  It was huge!

Because I’m not too good with heights Sean let me go before him so I didn’t have to wait.  The jump was the most frightening and exciting thing I have ever done but I was overjoyed when it was finished.

Afterwards Matt, our guide, dropped us off and we headed towards Kinloch.  Sean was still on a high after his second canyon swing and I thoroughly enjoyed our gravel road drive towards Kinloch, which of course I treated like I was on a rally!  What a great day and what fun the rally drive to Kinloch was in a Mercedes Sprinter van.

Back in Queenstown we checked our van into a local campsite.  We decided to go into town for our evening meal and finished the night mixing with the locals and enjoying the end to our extremely terrifying day.

Sunday 15^th October – Day 16

The alarm went off at 05:00 and we got up in the freezing cold.  The rain was lashing down too as we headed for the shower blocks.  Fortunately the showers were the best we’ve had on this trip.  We felt invigorated as we walked through the rain to the Kiwi Experience pick up point.

The bus turned up fifteen minutes late, which was not too popular with the group, and before long we were on our way.  Jason, our driver and comedian for the day, introduced himself to everyone and gave a running commentary of interesting things we passed along the journey.

As we reached Te Anau for breakfast the weather was still bleak.  However the drive to Milford Sound, passing through avalanche country, was absolutely breathtaking and I took over 40 photos just on the way.  Our passage through Homer Tunnel (whilst listening to the Star Wars theme tune on the bus) will never be forgotten!

On the boat we saw hundreds of huge waterfalls and the famous Mitre Peak.  We stopped off on our way back to go to an underwater observatory to see the Marlborough Sound wildlife.  By the time we got back to the bus I had taken over 70 photos and was completely soaked after getting myself too close to a waterfall.

The journey back passed quickly as we watched Seone’s Wedding, a comedy filmed in New Zealand, on the bus.  The weather was sunny at long last too!  After a quick bite to eat it was off to bed as the next two days were certain to be busy.

Monday 16^th October – Day 17

The rain hammered dorn last night and kept us awake for long periods.  By the time we got up heavy winds had started too.

We made the trek down to our pick up point for our ‘runging’ trip (basically rope climbing up sheer cliffs).  We met up with Dave, our guide, who invited us into his currently closed shop.  He checked the weather forecast and decided that it would be best if we postponed our runging until the afternoon as the weather was forecast to improve.

We went for some breakfast and decided to go on a gondola ride (although it was actually a cable car not a gondola!) and have a look at the panoramic views of Queenstown.  The snow-capped peaks looked tremendous and it finally stopped raining, allowing us to see right to the far end of Lake Wakatipu.  Whilst stop at the summit we noticed a luge track nearby.  Needless to say we had a go!  What fun it was and Sean even managed to have one of his customary spectacular crashes!

Back down in Queenstown we met up again with Dave and Helen (our other guide who was from Heswall) and over the next three hours scaled Via Ferrata.  What a terrific mental and physical challenge it was – and what a sense of achievement at the summit (just over 350m).  Dave took some superb photos of us whilst Helen led the way.

Afterwards we were still on a high and decided to go out for tea as a reward for our achievements.  It would have to be another early night though as it would be yet another busy day tomorrow with an even earlier start.  Let’s hope the good weather from the evening time holds through the night!

Tuesday 17^th October – Day 18

Sean and I got up early as we had to be ready for our canyon biking at 08:00  The weather was freezing cold but after a quick breakfast we headed into town in our cycling gear – that certainly woke us up!

At the Gravity Action office we met our guides Dave and Rod and our fellow bikers Gemma and Anthony.  After a short bus journey we arrived at Skippers Canyon.  The top of the canyon was freezing cold but the sun was starting to come out.  Over the next three hours we sped down various paths and tracks in what had become glorious weather.  Sean had yet another spectacular crash, a real over-the-handlebar job!  The scenery was mind blowing and apart from me getting a puncture everything was going great.

After his enormous crash Sean had got himself the world’s largest bruise on his calf, which was beginning to cause him pain when he put weight on it.  I too had picked up some knocks but they weren’t anywhere near as bad.

Sadly it was time to give our hired bikes back and return to Queenstown – what an experience it had been though.  We went back to our campsite for some quick showers and bandaged up Sean’s enormous bruise.

After lunch it was time for our 12,000ft skydive with NZone.  We were talked through what to expect at the NZone offices with a DVD and a flip chart briefing and then got a bus ride to the nearby airstrip.  Sean and I were kept waiting anxiously for two hours but eventually we were called forward.  I was introduced to my tandem diver Peter (who was originally from Switzerland) and my cameraman, called Dan.

Having been harnessed up, and having had our full dive briefing we were on our Cessna heading to 12,000ft.  Before long the door opened on the plane and our cameraman clambered on to a rail outside in preparation for our jumps.  Sean went first and 30 seconds later it was my turn.  Peter pushed us out the door and we were off, free falling for 45 seconds at 200kmh.  Peter released our parachute and we spent six incredible minutes paragliding over Lake Wakatipu and enjoying the peace and quiet.  We could even see Mount Cook which was 250kms away!  We came in to land and both managed to stay on our feet, whilst being filmed by Dan.  Sean and I were so pleased to see each other again!

After a short bus ride back to Queenstown we thought we’d have some tea before going to collect our photos and DVD of the skydive from the NZone office.  We called in at World Bar and had possibly the best meal of the trip so far.

On our way to collect our stuff from NZone we walked past Wakatipu Creek only to see two people in kayaks come out of a tunnel and sail by.  Apparently it was the first time anyone had attempted it for over 150 years, interesting…

Having collected our stuff we drove north to Wanaka.  We were sad to be leaving Queenstown but we needed to start moving again.  We parked up right on the banks of Lake Wanaka for the night and went to bed resting our battered and bruised bodies.  What a day it had been!

Wednesday 18^th October – Day 19

We were woken at 06:45 by a bang on the door of our van.  A man alleging to be from Wanaka Council said that we were in a ‘no overnight camping’ car park and had to move.  I couldn’t see such a sign anywhere and we weren’t entirely convinced that he was from the council – more likely a disgruntled local who didn’t like campervans on the waterfront.  We moved the van anyway.

After a quick shower and breakfast we were back in Wanaka (the same car park too!) booking our ice climbing expedition and glacier helicopter ride for tomorrow.  Having done that we set out to see the sights in Wanaka.  The lake is something everyone should see as Mount Aspiring in the background is the most incredible backdrop!

The time had come to visit Guy Cotter, a very experienced climber who has completed the seven summits and now runs a business for people like me and Sean to do it too.  We spent 45 minutes with Guy discussing our future treks and our fundraising plans.  Guy seemed extremely busy and we were pleased he was able to take the time to see us.

Before too long we had to move on.  The drive to Fox Glacier took five hours as the Mount Aspiring National Park was simply stunning.  We kept stopping the van to look at the views every few hundred yards!  Eventually we reached Fox Glacier and prepared our equipment for tomorrow.  We had time for a quick visit to Franz Josef Glacier too and spent the evening discussing our conversations with Guy from earlier in the day and our plans for fundraising.  Perhaps the ice climbing tomorrow will be good training for a future trek!

Thursday 19^th October – Day 20

We woke up with the alarm at 06:00 and wearily got up to prepare our equipment for today’s ice climb on Fox Glacier.  The rain had hammered down all night and we knew our helicopter ride would be called off this evening.

Having arrived at our pick up point we met Malcolm, our guide (who had an enormous ginger beard), who confirmed that our climb was still definitely on.  We met the other two guys in our group too.  Eamon from Somerset and Stewart from Largs (near Glasgow) were to be ice climbing with us today.

We got ourselves kitted up and headed for Fox Glacier in what had now become bitterly cold weather.  The glacier itself was an hour’s hard trekking away.  There were lots of rock falls along the way but we all made the trek and looked to be in good shape.

Over the next six hours we were taught ice climbing techniques and practised them out on 25-30ft sheer walls of ice.  The group had bonded really well and we were having the time of our lives.  Before we knew it it was 17:00 and time to make the long hike back to the town.  With the group getting on so well we decided to have tea together to celebrate our achievements from earlier in the day.

After rearranging our helicopter ride for tomorrow morning Sean and I joined Malcolm, Eamon and Stewart in the own’s only bar.  We spent a really enjoyable evening together and, after attending to Sean’s enormous bruise again, went to bed at 22:00 and were asleep within seconds.  Again, what a day!

Friday 20^th October – Day 21

I woke up and looked at my watch at 06:05.  I was surprised that our 06:00 alarm hadn’t gone off and checked Sean’s mobile to find out that his clock was 12 hours behind on UK time!  Needless to say it was fortunate that I woke up when I did.

We got up and drove over to Franz Josef Glacier.  The weather was glorious and we thoroughly enjoyed the views that we missed the first time we went to Franz Josef Glacier.  After a 45 minute drive we arrived at our helipad at about 08:30.  The receptionist asked to speak to me and Sean in private and told us that our postponed flight from last night would now be changed to a longer flight which covered both glaciers.  The flights were priced at $160 in Wanaka which was incorrect (they should have been $175) and our new flight was meant to be $235.  Incredibly they asked us not to mention it to the others on the helicopter ride and only charged us the $160 we had been quoted in Wanaka.

Jamie, our pilot for the day and yet another Scot in New Zealand, lifted us up into the air and gave us stunning views of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman before landing on the top of Fox Glacier.  The views were incredible and I took huge amounts of photos.  The ride was something I would never forget.  Back in the helicopter we flew over Franz Josef Glacier and were also treated to some good views of the Tasman Sea.

Just as we landed the clouds descended and all further flights were off – we had been very lucky.  After collecting some supplies, refuelling the van and booking tomorrow’s ferry online we hit the road just after 11:00.  We had 550kms to do to reach Picton before tomorrow.

The drive flew by as both the weather and views improved as the day went on.  We eventually pulled into Picton at 17:30 without a single cloud in the sky (literally not one!).

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