South America
To IstanbulNew Zealand and then back to the UK
Arriving in Christchurch on the south island of New Zealand, I could immediately tell that I should have spent far more time in this country. The city was like a beautiful English city, with the added benefit that they have "proper" beer.
I rented a car for a week, to see as much of the South Island as I could. I drove out of Christchurch west, up into the mountains and through Arthur's Pass.
This is a gap in the mountain range that runs along the back bone of the south island. The countryside changed slowly from flat farmland (reminded me of Kent or Cambridgeshire) to foot hills and then mountains. On the other side was the west coast of the south island, here I stopped for a night at Hokitiki. After buying some jade as presents for those back home, I continued south along the coast road.
The roadside vegetation, on drive south, was unusual. It started out lush and almost tropical, but before long this gave way to duller temperate greens. At points during the drive my hire car picked up salt spray from ocean waves crashing against the shore.
I first visited the Fox Glacier and then went on to the Franz Joseph glacier, neither were a patch on what they had been. I turned off the main road and followed a hard dirt access road to the base of the Franz Joseph glacier. Alongside the road was a small river, its water white from the glacial feed. As I drove closer to the the glacier base, signs next to the road showed where the end of the glacier had been in years gone by. I drove for over a kilometre from its 1900 end point, before reaching the car park, and from there it was a further 3 or 400 meters walk to get near the present end of the glacier. The valley floor (yes, it was "U" shaped, just like my geography master taught) was strewn with boulders where the glacier had dropped them, as it retreated.
Staying overnight in a local (rather overpriced) hotel, I was able to enjoy some excellent food in the small local restaurant. The township of Franz Joseph attracts many walkers and other tourists.
Driving ever southwards I turned inland (south-east) from Haast - which is shown on the map, but only has 3 or 4 houses in total - towards my next stop of Queenstown. The terrain became wild as well as deserted. In what, to me, looked like sheep rearing country there was precious little signs of humanity, apart from the occasional car.
Wanaka has a small airstrip that has become famous as the home for several world war two fighter planes. As it was on my route, I decided to stop and have a look. In one hanger a couple of ex-Soviet Union planes were being rebuilt. The originals had seen service in Spain, fighting against Franco's Nazi backed airforce. In other hangers and building were kept an odd selection of old planes, cars, vans, models, and even spoons.
Queenstown
Late in the day I arrived at my Queenstown hotel. This turned out to be more apartments than hotel rooms, and as I was staying for a couple of days, I was given a three bedroom, bathroom with jacuzzi, two floor apartment, all to myself. A truly pleasant way of resting for a while.
Queenstown is famous for its bungi jumping (which I wimped out on), jet boat rides, and helicopter flights. But, as I was still recovering from two injured shoulders (they took another 4 or 5 months to heal), I stayed clear of such madness.
The town is laid out for tourists, it caters for walkers and thrill seekers in summer and skiers in winter. I was there because I needed a bit of a rest.
The town was full of bars and restaurants and shops selling thrill rides and Internet cafes (it's amazing that there are now very few places on this planet that do not have an Internet cafe).
A cable car ran to the top of a local peak, where you could ride in a toboggan (in a steel U shaped track), or simply have a cup of coffee while enjoying the view.
After resting up for a couple of days in Queenstown, I had to make my way back to Christchurch, so that I could fly up to Auckland. My route took me past Mount Cook, albeit at a distance. And after a night's stop in Timaru (famous for being a port that exports produce to Sainsbury, and the site of some very good seafront restaurants) I made it back to the Christchurch and a cheap-ie flight. The plane stopped at Wellington for an hour, so my only view of this pleasant, if windy, city, was from the airport bar.
I had a couple of days in Auckland, before flying out to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. It rained. My stay in Auckland was severely effected by torrential downpours. I did manage to have a look at the Americas Cup boats, get a so so curry and catch a film, but apart from that I saw very little of the sodden city.
My flight out was due late in the afternoon, I turned up early (as usual) at the airport, only to be delayed by 24 hours. The weather had so effected Air NewZealand that several flights were delayed. We were all taken back through customs (each of us were asked "what country have you just come from?" and each gave the same answer) and then bussed to a Novotel hotel, where we were looked after well at Air NewZealand's expense.
The next afternoon saw us all back at the airport and, thankfully, this time we were off to the Cook Islands.
Cook Islands - Rarotonga
The aircraft touched down shortly after midnight on, thanks to the international date line, the day before we took off. I was met at the airport by a very efficient, if not particularly modern, bus service, that got me to my hotel (the Edgewater) in no time at all. Rarotonga is a small island and everywhere can be reached in no time at all.
The bad weather that had been effecting New Zealand, was also bashing Rarotonga, so at least once a day the island was soaked by torrential rain.
One thing that made me smile, was the immigration card that you have to fill out - like most countries. The Rarotonga card had advertising on both sides - unlike any country I've been to.
We arrived late at night, and I was taken to my hotel by their courtesy minibus. The hotel room was okay, a bit basic, but okay.
The next morning I killed the "complimentary" spider with the room's complimentary bug spray, and then went for breakfast in the hotel's ocean front restaurant.
A bus service was run around the island, with two buses, each going around in the opposite direction, so trips to the capital, Avarua, were easy to arrange. Mind you, apart from bars, tourist shops, restaurants, and the ubiquitous Internet cafe, there was very little to the capital.
The hotel, as the name suggests, was right on the beach. It had a nice beach side bar, where I spent many an hour happily sipping an ice cold Cook Island beer.
On my last day on the island (reduced to four days, because of the weather delay in Auckland) I hired a car (thankfully airconditioned) and toured the island's circumference (all 24 kilometres worth). Rarotonga has the advantage of having no major/luxury hotel, which seems to be sufficient deterrent to hoards of tourists. Instead it is more of a stop over for the more adventurous traveller.
* Rarotonga - Cook Islands
The onward flight via Tahiti, left shortly after dark. I spent my last New Zealand dollars on a beer in the airport bar, and then sweat most of it out, while waiting to board. The refuelling stop in Tahiti was just that, so I saw nothing of the island but their street lights.
USA - Los Angeles - passing through
I arrived, tired and jet lagged, in LAX in the early morning. Queueing to get through immigration, I filled out the usual two cards, ticking no in the boxes "Are you entering the USA to overthrow the government?" and "Are you entering the USA to commit criminal acts?", and filling in the "What countries have you just visited?" field with Syria and Iran. Okay, so I hadn't just visited them, but I couldn't resist it.
While every other passenger was being directed to the exit after immigration, I was asked to go over to the opposite side of the room, to explain why I had been to these two (out of three) countries that were (still are) part of the axis of evil. I described, to a very nice young lady, my round the world trip, and she seemed satisfied that I had indeed filled out my immigration card correctly and was not "entering the USA to overthrow the government" .
I was only in Los Angeles to try and catch up on some sleep and reset my body clock to closer to UK time. Before long I was back in an Air New Zealand aircraft and on my way to London Heathrow and the end of this trip.
The end
If I were to do it again, I'd spend far more time in India and New Zealand, and not bother with Thailand, Singapore or Australia.
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