NEW ZEALAND 3
Jenny with Sir Tim Wallis with Hawker Hurricane P3351 at the New Zealand Fighter Pilot's Museum.
Wanaka, we’ve made it, we’ve been looking forward to getting to Wanaka for some time now to see how the ‘other half are’. Jenny’s work is connected with the Alpine Deer Group in Wanaka. Her company produced the airframe for the Hurricane P3351 that was completed by Air New Zealand. The gentleman in the picture is Sir Tim Wallis who, along with Jenny’s boss (Tony Ditheridge) who initially financed the building of Hawker Hurricane World War II fighters in England. Tim was a great host and along with the other members of the Hurricane team we had a good time in Wanaka. Even being allowed to use someones house whilst they were away. Wanaka itself is a really big ski destination for both New Zealanders and foreigners. The main thing that struck us here was the huge amount of new housing with no occupants – apparently the current "full-time" population of Wanaka is 4,000 which rises to 20,000 in the ski season – and this is only the New Zealanders !! Wanaka even provided us with our first BBQ invite with Ray and his wife Charlene – Ray being the Chief Engineer on the Hurricane project.
The bikes outside the Alpine Deer Group offices in Wanaka – note the concrete stag.
The end of the BBQ night with Ray and Charlene – glassy eyes all round………….
We left Wanaka for Te Anua – having decided that we would not drive all the way into Milford Sound as the accomodation was a choice of a rather tacky sounding hostel or "The Ritz". This decision was also compounded by the fact that the dive school picked up from Te Anua – at 6 a.m. to go to Milford for the days diving. Neither of us were too keen on getting up that early and making our own way to the dive site. We even took our first cabin here so that we did not have to wake to the thought of wet clothes and tent. (New Zealand is now heading seriously for winter and we have found ourselves both cold and wet on many an occasion). 5 a.m. and the alarm woke us – in body anyway. Arriving at Milford the dive master informed us that due to the lack of space on our boat we would change into our dive suits before getting out on the water – normal clothing would be left behind in the van. The five of us, Tim and Alex (dive master and skipper) piled into the boat. The ride was rather bumpy – being on effectively and overgrown speedboat. We arrived at the first dive site and were helped into our gear. This was to be our first "over the side" backwards flip to enter the water. It was easy once done once. We hit the water and SH^T it’s cold. The diving here is quite unique – the mountains form dramatic fjords and due to the amount of rainfall they have there is a constant layer of fresh water on top of the sea water. This reduces the amount of light that is passed down into the water. Along with the coldness vegetation and marine animals can be found here that are not normally seen at above 200m. This included black coral (which is white!) and nudibranch’s (strange slug like things that have what looks like a fringe along their backs).
Milford Sound
After a lazy day wandering around Te Anua to see what else it had to offer – not much. We left for the most Southern-most point in New Zealand. Invercargill is a dead end town but quaint. We camped at the local showground and took a ride around town. After deciding that we had pretty much seen it all that afternoon we amused ourselves the next day by borrowing two push bikes from the campsite and biked to the musuem to see the Tuatara (lizard type things that live forever). We spent another ½ and hour watching Henry the oldest of the Tuatara (100+ years) for signs of life – eventually he moved – yippee.

Leaving via the scenic tourist route to Dunedin we trundled along only to be confronted by yet more gravel roads…………Jenny at this stage is cracking up. At Dunedin we again stayed with a friend from Jenny’s work – Graeme – who kindly lent us his cottage in Wanaka. We posted unwanted items home from here – including heated jackets that we have been carrying ever since we left England and only worn once ! We went to the Super 12 rugby on the Saturday – the Highlanders (our team) vs the Crusaders. This was Jenny’s first ever live rugby match (not that she had seen too many televised ones anyway). However, despite here lack of knowledge of the game a great time was had just being on the terraces and in the atmosphere of hundreds of adoring Highlander fans – even if it did rain all the way through the game.
Graeme and some mates that arrived for the rugby game – lunch is BBQ venison – yummy. Strange how the only time a man will eagerly cook is when he is placed infront of a BBQ ????
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