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Merry Christmas to you; I hope you all have had a wonderful day giving gifts, receiving presents, stuffing yourself with food and playing with the cardboard boxes. Christmas was just slightly diffeent for me this year, despite the fact i was in Mt Cook National Park. I went to bed late, and loe I woke up on Christmas Day to the sound of hiphop. "So you wanna be me, you bitch" is not the most christmassy of lyrics. No turkey, chocolate money or Mum's gorgeous Xmas cake, no presents to open or give, or Vicar of Dibley to watch on TV. In fact, I only heard the word 'christmas' mentioned 3 times all da. But, I have been treating myself to masses of feel-good food all week: chocolate, chocolate mousses, jelly, mince pies, caramel slices, popcorn, christmas cake, spiced biscuits I had fun baking, a perfect steak, sausages - yes, that's right, I'm a greedy fat bastard.

The road to Cook

Simon Wadsworth
2006-09-04 17:59:39

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blog about experiencing a driving lesson with a difference. Unfortunately, even the driest city in NZ has to rain sometimes, and so my fying lesson (an amazing Christmas pressie from my groovy girlfriend) in Christchurch has had to be postponed until the end of my trip in NZ. I was only in Christchurch a couple of

Merry Christmas worlddays, passing through the weirdly named 'Pupu Springs' on the way, boasted as the clearest water in the world, but was actually just a bubbling pond. However, my impression of the city wasn't a great one unfortunately. I'm not sure, but this may have something to do with the boy-racers and prostitutes standing alert at the end of the road I was staying on. Nevertheless, there was an Englist feel about the place - a cathedral, punting on the River Avon, drunks shouting proffanities...an English feel. I'm sure if I stayed longer my impression would've changed, but sadly that's the impression I took away from the city.

And briefly, getting to Mt Cook proved itself more of an adventure than I was expecting. This all started when I said goodbye to my luggage which got carried away on the bus I was meant to be carried away on too. But, because I'm stupid, I missed it by a minute at one of its stops at Lake Tekao. I thus swore lots as one does in these circumstances when your transport and luggage have left you, accomodation is booked ahead, and another bus driver comments "haha, well you're going to have to stay here for the night now aren't you?" Fat chance! To cut a long story short (I can feel your relief from over here), a couple from Norwich of all places, overheard my conversation with a shopkeeper, and kindly offered to drive me there. So sitting in the back of a camper van, dodging falling plastic bags, we went on a road race after the coach, and arrived at Mt Coo National Park, reunited with Mr. Rucksack.

From Mt Cook, I have journeyed through the ''oooh wow" scenery to Queenstown where I am now, passing back through Lake Tekapo for a couple of days. The place felt very much like parts of Scotland with a landscape similar to Edoras country. I've added some photos to save you the trouble of reading any more of my poorly-chosen adjectives. As if I hadn't had enough already, I relaxed some more: climbing a mountain, sitting on the lakeshore, reading, and baking more spiced biscuits, which one 7-year old described as the tastiest she'd ever had - Gordon Ramsay beat that! Woo yeh! Lake Tekapo also boasts (every tourist attraction seems to boast something over here, or is the umpteenth 8th
wonder of the world) some of the clearest skies in the world. I'm not sure, but it was definitely the clearest I'd ever seen, yes, even clearer than the Fens. Lying down on a road (full of intelligent ideas as usual) I must've looked up in a trance for over an hour, seeing Orien upside down and the Southern Cross, and thinking all the usual thoughts one does - insignificance, aliens, world peace, is that a car coming? etc. Though I did see a special sight - along the horizon, more than just yoru average shooting stars, I saw a big orange/red fireball plummet towards the Earth, burning up after 10 secons. I've never seen anything like it!...Probably just an omen that the world with end tomorrow when I do my bungee jump...

Have an awesome New Year, and keep in touch. Simon x