Sam and E-J's Adventure

Having stayed in another beautiful campsite just outside Wanaka, we arose early and headed for Queenstown to stay with E-J's friend Emily, for one night before heading down to Milford Sound. On the way there we briefly stopped at Wanaka and took in the sweet little town and it's sights. E-J also took great delight it fooling around with a sculpture by the side of the lake.

When we reached Queenstown it was lovely for E-J to see her old friend Emily and after catching up over a good meal, E-J was already looking forward to coming back to spend some more time with her.

The 295 kilometre drive down to Milford Sound had breathtaking sights all the way there. Much to E-J's pleasure Sam did most of the driving so she was able to sit back and take in the incredible scenery. As we began our journey, the skies began to turn a miserable grey and by the time we reached Milford Sound the place was covered in a deep, low mist with torrential rain splashing down everywhere. This was surely the only reason why it was named after Milford Haven in Wales?

Rather than being disappointed by this, it added a greater depth to the place. Surrounded by tall, threatening mountains and steep gorges, everything look very haunting and eerie as they gloomily appeared from behind the low cloud and mist. The rain also caused an abundance of tiny waterfalls to cascade down the mountains, creating a constant sound of splashing water. This was the first time that we both felt totally awe struck by the magnificence of the place. It was very easy to see why Peter Jackson chose to do most of the filming of Lord of the Rings down here; it felt like another planet.

The town of Milford Sound consisted of one cafe, which was attached to one pub, a few buildings which housed staff, a petrol station and a fire station. Having spent all of 5 minutes understanding the lay out of the place, we looked into the best way of seeing this world heritage site. Deciding to avoid the huge tourist crowns aboard all the cruises, we booked a kayak tour for the following day and then made our way to the only lodgings / campsite area there. The place was of course booked up. Luckily, one staff member took pity on us (due to E-J providing him details of our unfortunate time in Wellington!) and found us literally, a hole in the hedge where we could park up and stay for the night.

The rain poured heavily all that night and E-J began to worry just how soaked she was going to be kayaking the next day! When we woke up the next morning, the skies were still a moody grey but the rain had stopped. There were only eight people kayaking in our group, which made it perfect, as it meant we had the place all to ourselves. E-J particularly felt this when Sam insisted on going on ahead of everyone!

From the kayaks, the views were spectacular and we felt so helpless and small as we looked up to the most enormous mountains right above us, which are apparently three times as tall as the Empire State building.

The kayaking was a good four hours and by the end of it we were all pretty tried and wet from the waves. E-J was relieved to have seen some seals on the rocks as the guides had told her that two weeks ago a great white had been spotted in these waters and all other sea life had disappeared. The thought of coming across a fifteen foot shark was something E-J desperately didn't want to experience.

After a quick lunch break we got back in the kayak for a second tour. This involved a walk along some of the famous Milford Sound hiking track. The kayak crossing was suppose to be simple, but by now the winds had picked up and it was almost impossible to get out into the water.

People call kayaks the divorce boats and after several angry words about each other's paddling and near miss of some rocks and trees in the lake, we could see why! Fortunately E-J managed to calm down and remember how to paddle!

The walk itself was beautiful. The place is so full of rich, lush trees and vegetation. Our guide was incredibly informative, explaining a lot about the different plant species and wildlife that can be found there. He also showed us various plants and shrubbery that you can eat.

After the forty minute walk we returned back to the main base of Milford Sound and were taken to the bottom of a most impressive waterfall. It was so powerful and incredible to be so close to it.

By now it was 8pm and we were on our knees from all the exertion of the day. We decided to end it with a delicious steak in the only pub in town! By now the skies had totally cleared up and we were able to experience a beautiful sunset among all these incredible mountains.

Sam's comments: I can understand why Rudyard Kipling called this place the eighth Wonder of the World, amazing, best experiance of New Zealand. Altough E-J's tantrum in the Kayar nearly spoilt it!!

E-J's comments: This place is simply breathtaking. Photos can't do it justice. These mountains are just so enormous and as you stand at the foot of them, they literally go vertically up into the sky! It feels almost magical, a place I would highly recommend!

After a busy morning of cleaning the old van and exchanging it for a new van and a newer model (much to E-J's pleasure) we decided to start heading towards the Glaciers. This was a long drive and as we took in the incredible views we felt as though the past sad days had finally left us. The landscapes were breathtaking, with rolling mountain ranges and the most crystal clear, blue lakes.

As we drove along the deserted highway without a car in sight, we continually stopped to take in the most impressive views.

By 4pm, we were a comfortable distance from the Glaciers so decided to rest for a night in a beautiful little spot by Lake Lanthe.

There were only a couple of tents there and one other campervan. After battling with the sand flies and covering ourselves in repellent, we enjoyed a good meal and a cold bottle of wine, while watching the sun go down over the lake. It was beautiful!

Up early the next morning, we made our way to Franz Josef, which was about forty minutes away. On arriving, it was a little misty so we decided to wait around until it cleared. We then walked to the end of the pathway and crossed the restricted fence to get a bit closer to the glacier.

The glacier was impressive to see, but looked incredibly dirty from the dust of the rocks around it. It was not as impressive as Perito Moreno in Patagonia, which had a magnificient angular structure formed from being in a lake. We took in the sights appreciating them for what they were at ground level, though we're sure we would have found the views far more breathtaking had we seen them from a helicopter or small plane.

We then made our way to the Fox Glacier and walked up to the base of it. Again, we found it to be not as beautiful or as impressive as the one in Patagonia, but we feel that we have been rather spoiled by all the incredible views we saw in South America.

As we walked back to our car, Sam suddenly shouted out to E-J, "Look!" and just at that moment a most enormous piece of ice broke away, causing an incredible crash and explosion into the small stream below. We were so lucky to see this, as it was such a massive amount to fall at that time.

Pleased to have experienced this, we set off towards Queenstown where we were meeting a friend of E-J's in a couple of days.

Sam's comments: Enjoying the new van but not the sandflies they are everywhere

E-J's comments: The place we stayed at the night before we saw the glaciers was how I had hoped our experiences would be like in the campervan. The view from the back of the van was incredible and it was so special to wake up to something like this. I am also pleased I saw the Glaciers, but I'm afraid they're not a patch on Perito Moreno in Patagonia.

We arrived into Kaikoura to try and view some whales. Kaikoura attracts whales due to the depth of the water, less than 2 kilometres from the coast there is an underwater canyon which is over 1000 metres deep. Ideal for whales to relax and eat lots of squid!

We arrived into Kaikoura with beautiful sunshine to be told that, all whale watching tours had been cancelled for the last few days, due to bad weather. Therefore there was a large backlog of bookings waiting to happen. Not expecting to get a chance to view any whales, we booked ourselves on a waitlist for the day and went off to explore a few of the views from the hilltops.

The views were spectacular and there was just so much wildlife around, from seals, to albatrosses and various other sea birds, which names escape us. Having taken in the beautiful views and the incredible blue colour of the sea, we made our way to the whale centre to find out whether we had made it on any of the tours. We stood in the waitlist queue, which felt like some kind of audition or interview as the lucky names were called out. Having been there since 12pm, we finally got our call up at 1.15pm.

We were then bused down to the port and transfered onto a massive speed boat, which took us out into the deep ocean where we would have the opportunity of seeing a few sperm whales. We were more than lucky and were able to site five sperm wales, which was quite unusual (or so they told us). It was incredible to be so close to these magnificent creatures swimming past the boat, squirting water into the air with a big blast and revealing just how enormous they were as the wave broke over them.

When the whales have had enough of roaming the sea, they dive down, around sixty metres into the depths of the sea leaving spectators with a picture perfect flicker of a whale's tale. Once down, they will not resurface for a good few hours. On all five attempts, we kept trying to get the perfect whale tail picture, but failing each time, we resort to videoing it instead.

Watching these massive whales was such an incredible experience and we were then taken over to a group of playful dolphins.

There must have been about fifty to a hundred of them and they absolutely loved playing with the boat, chasing it and also jumping out of the sea numerous of times as though they were performing to the people watching them.

They seemed so tranquil, yet at the same time having the best time, full of fun. We couldn't wait for our experience to swim with dolphins, having seen how playful this lot had behaved, but we would have to wait until near the end of the trip.

After a fantastic day we headed down to Christchurch for the night, after circling the city centre a few times we managed to find our accommodation for the night. This would be the final night in our perspex windowed van. After four days, the sticky tape seemed to have come away, leaving a terrible draught to sleep in. Also there were only so many nights we could tolerate sleeping on the remains of the shattered glass from the incident.

Sam's comments: Due to EJ's directions (or as E-J says"a bad map")I seem to know Christchurch city centre better than most! The whales where a joy to watch.

E-J's comments: Kaikoura is a very special place and I feel so priviledged to have seen these mammals of such incredible size and grace. The dolphins were also just so happy and playful, making it a perfect day.

The next day, the reality of the robbery came back to E-J and she immediately became incredibly moody and angry, which wasn't helped by the hangover from the night before. Sam decided that the best thing would be a new start on a new island, so off to the South Island we went.

The boat journey over to the South island took three and a half hours and luckily it was a sunny day with calm water. Sam enjoyed his book inside, while E-J spent the majority of the journey staring out to sea thinking about the robbery, what had been lost and how we could have prevented it. Repeatedly Sam would come out to see if E-J was alright, reminding her that the South was all about a new start, but E-J being typical E-J, could not stop thinking and talking about the robbery, changing from angry to sad and then angry again.

Finally, when we reached the South Island E-J was able to smile as we past the most beautiful scenery on our way into the harbour.

We arrived into Picton and decided the best thing would be for us to travel across to Nelson to try to relax and enjoy the beaches around it, if not the quaint, little town.

The drive there was relatively pleasant, passing numerous vineyards and a vast mountain range covered in conafors. Sadly, as we drove into Nelson the weather started to go bad with the sky turning a moody, overcast grey. E-J thought how much this reflected her mood.

That night we stayed in a campervan site in Nelson as we only had perspex in place of the windows (the repair garage in Wellington hadn't had the glass to fit them). Over the top about security, E-J wanted to be somewhere enclosed, which was rather a shame as there were plenty of desolate camping places around. Without the proper security, we didn't want to lose anything else.

That night the rain poured down heavily and we awoke to pretty miserable weather. We then decided we would go to Collingwood to escape from people for a day or so and take in some of the beautiful beaches of the Golden Bay.

As we drove along, the weather started to brighten up and we talked about how things were going to improve. Just as we were both laughing together, a siren and flashing blue light suddenly appeared behind us and an undercover police cop pulled us over to the side. He told us that he had actually been hoping to get the guy in front, but since we were speeding too, he'd give us the ticket instead. E-J, in her usual calm and assuring state, started crying and going off on one at the policeman about what a terrible time we'd already had and why not give us a fine just to add to our troubles. With the policeman starting to soften to our story, Sam quickly advised E-J to be quiet and get back in the van (before she started to become too dramatic and irritate the policeman). Then as a school boy to a headmaster, in the politest most responsible way possible, Sam answered all his questions as best he could. To our luck the policeman let us off!

Once we were in Collingwood, we were relieved to finally make it there with no fine and finding it to be pretty deserted. Having found a camp site at the end of the town, we spent the rest of the evening in a local pub down the road. This pub was incredibly large, but also incredibly empty too.

By the early hours of the next morning, the bad weather seemed to have followed us there, so with no chance of enjoying a gentle stroll on the beach, we resorted to returning to Nelson and possibly heading onto Kaikoura from there.

On the way back, we decided to enjoy some more of the scenic views and decided to make our way down a gravel track to a cave, which is suppose to be the biggest cave in New Zealand. Having travelled down it for a good ten minutes, we started to worry about just how far we had to go to get there. With the gravel road narrowing and an almighty, steep edge of a cliff on one side, we decided that luck hadn't really be on our side lately, so perhaps we ought to turn back. This was also influenced by the sight of the remains of an old campervan, which had previously taken a tumble off the edge. Sam skillfully manoeuvred the van round and we made our way back, passing the occasional car, which added more tension to the trip as we found ourselves practically hanging off the edge while passing them. Once off the uneventful track, we both made a packed not to do anything as stupid as that again!

After a brief stop in Nelson, we continued our travels down the East Coast to the town of Kaikoura in the hope of booking a tour to see some Whales.

Sam's Comments: Glad my charm saved me from a speeding ticket. Good to know I have still got it!!

E-J's Comments: These last few days have been very difficult for me, as I am trying to enjoy New Zealand, but there is a part of me that can't let go of what happened in Wellington. I just hope that the next part of our journey has more good excitement.

Having slept rather uncomfortably the night before, E-J was exhausted and Sam wasn't much better, but we decided to head off early to try and get to Wellington for mid morning.

The journey was pretty smooth with E-J singing along as the CD player blurted out "There may be trouble ahead". If only we realised how significant that tune would be. By 11am we were in the city centre. We decided to park it in a multi story car park, we figured that it would be safer in an indoor place rather than out on display for the whole of Wellington to see. As we drove past the two men standing at the front desk we enquired whether it would be alright to park the campervan there. Being as cheery as all New Zealanders we had met so far, they gave us a warm smile and said, "yes it's fine, it's fine, have a good day". The next obstacle was then finding a parking space as the place was chocker blocked, but as we reached near to the top, some spaces became available. We then did our usual check that all the windows and doors were locked and nothing of any value was out on display. In hindsight, we wished we'd locked our bags together with a chain like we usually did but for some reason, whether it was because we were tired or distracted, we forgot.

For the next four hours we wandered around the city taking in the sights and spending some much needed catch up time on the internet.

At about 3pm, we headed back to the car park, wanting to move the car to a less expensive parking space where we had seen a load of campervans while walking around. As we walked up the levels, Sam managed to walk out onto the wrong floor and in a panicked voice, said the van had gone. E-J, more reassuringly told him to calm down as it was on the next level.

As we walked to the van, we were joking away about our equally terrible drivinig skills and the challenge of managing twenty more days in the van without any major incidents. We didn't notice a thing. It was only when E-J jumped into the drivers seat and as she slammed the door, heard the shattering of glass. Shocked by the noise, she turned round to see that the two back windows had been smashed in and all our bags had gone. All she could say was, 'Our bags, our bags, they're gone...."

The next hour or so seemed a bit like a blur as Sam contacted the police. A sweet girl who happened to be there when we discovered the break in, went down to contact the staff on the bottom floor. The two staff were already aware of the situation as they had already been up there and cleaned all the glass away from around the outside of the car. This explains why we didn't notice the damage at first, but also makes us wonder why they didn't think to contact the police when the break in was first realised.

E-J at this point was in a state of shock, but Sam took control, giving a full account to the police, the car hire company and insurance. What E-J couldn't believe was that the police said there was no point in coming to the crime scene as only the windows had been smashed and as there was no blood anywhere, they wouldn't be able to find any fingerprints.

E-J started to take things into her own hands, walking into the offices next door, where she had noticed people having cigarette breaks in the car park. She started to ask whether anyone had seen anything, but sadly to no prevail. She then proceeded to walk around the building checking all the rubbish bins and in the alley ways around the building, but she found nothing.

The irony was that these buggers hadn't bothered to look in the glove box where they would have found an ipod of value. We had also hidden our passports and credit cards in a separate compartment that they hadn't bothered to look in either, so all that they had was a load of worthless clothes and junk, but to us it was priceless memorabilia.

By now it was 4:45pm and we had to drive the car round to a garage by 5pm. Getting slightly lost, Sam started swearing at all traffic as EJ sat in the passanger seat with tears of disbelief and heartache.

All we were left with is what can be seen in the picture above, simply the items that we hadn't packed away. We wish we'd been a little more messy, so that more would have been left...

We took what possessions we had and headed to a nearby hostel. All we had with us were our camera, passports and wallets, two sleeping bags, a jacket and two jumpers and the clothes we were wearing that day. Poor Sam was in a t-shirt and shorts and to add insult to injury, he wasn't wearing any underwear!

The next struggle was trying to find a hostel, as everything was booked up. On our final attempt we finally got into a twelve bed dorm, which we knew would be pretty unpleasant.

A few more insurance calls later and one more large check around the car park and we retreated to a bar to drown our sorrows. Our two glum faces attracted the attention of two girls, called Sue and Sina. On hearing our story these two proud Wellingtonians couldn't believe it. They insisted on showing us the proper Wellington the following evening and offered us the chance to stay in their home.

That night we both slept badly. With the robbery still fresh in our minds and sharing a dorm with loud, drunk eighteen year olds meant E-J started the day at five thirty.

The next day was all about organising ourselves and realising just how much needed to be replaced. This ranged from the mundane items such as buying pants and everyday basic clothes to buying something to be able to wash with. After a day of painful chores, speaking to our banks about security issues, picking up the campervan (which now had perspex in place of the glass windows) and dealing with the ever unhelpful insurance companies, we managed an hour and a half of intense shopping. This is when we constantly saw the genuine sympathy of the Kiwi public. So many people took it upon themselves to help us; the pharmacist gave us a load of free sachets of cleansers, shampoos, etc, the jean shop gave Sam a good discount on his jeans, the phone company gave us a free charger and Sina, one of the girls from the night before provided us both with two rucksacks to put our new belongings in.

Feeling as though we had hit rock bottom, we finally met up with Sue and Sina. With it being Friday night they insisted on showing us the town and raised our moods straight away with a few drinks in the pub before we headed to see the local rugby team, the Wellington Hurricanes.

When we got there the queues for tickets were enormous but somehow we were luckily able to get tickets quickly. We then found our seats and with a few beers watched the Wellington Hurricanes beat the Queensland Reds.

Although the game wasn't the most incredible, E-J thought there was something special about being at a live game and feeling the atmosphere of the stadium. E-J also complained constantly about how poor the teams cheerleaders were and how she would be so much better. Sam observed as E-J's views on this opinion became stronger and stronger with each glass of white wine she had. As we left the ground E-J danced through the aisles ready to hit the town!

After the match we made our way back into town to enjoy some more drinks. In the first bar we stopped in we happened to bump into Graham Henry, the All Black coach, which was an incredible feit for Sam. With Sam trying to talk to him about the new laws being introduced, E-J insisted on telling "Henry Graham" how she had been robbed! Sadly for Sam this ensured Graham wanted to make a quick exit! Then afterwards Sam explained to E-J who he was, as she had no idea.

The rest of the night was spent enjoying more drinks and E-J in her usual state of excitement became more and more out of control on the dance floor until finally at 2am Sam decided it was time to pull her away from the floor and thanked the girls for a great night and for lifting our spirits during our time in Wellington.

Sam's comments: Should have worn some underwear! When purchasing new ones picked up the wrong size and am now a proud owner of 2 pairs of XXL navy blue boxer shorts!

E-J's comments: Wellington to me will always be associated with a sad time, but also an example of just how kind and thoughtful the Kiwi community can be. People were generally devastated to hear our news and willing to help in any way they could.