My memories from the South Pacific

In 2004, at the age of 25 I could make true my biggest dream, Travelling around the South Pacific islands and meeting their peoples. It was a voyage that would take me 4 months in my own and I would travel through 8 different countries and 10 islands.
I have been asked several times to publish my memories from there, anecdotes, adventures,..but due to lack of time I haven't been able to do it untill now, four years later. Better late than never they say!

AUSTRALIA

One of the South Pacific's main gates is Sydney, Australia, and I arrived via Singapore after a 6-hour flight.

I would spend 15 days there staying at my good friend Ben's house in Lake Maquarie, at 1,5 hrs by train from Sydney downtown.

However, when I landed at Sydney's airport my first experience was not very nice...Remember, whenever you travel to Australia you are asked to throw away any organic thing, such as food, seeds, or whatever thing which may grow or contain any kind of disease.

At customs clearance, the officer saw my passport, a brand new passport with a digital picture of me in it. The new system was launched after the 9-11 attacks for security reasons. Nowadays, this passport is very common and known everywhere, but apparently I was the first Spanish who arrived in Australia with that kind passport...so I had to wait for more than 1 hour before they let me go to pick up my luggage. I looked to be so suspicious and dangerous for customs, that they wanted to know where I was staying, who with, etc...and they even asked me for Ben's telephone number, to check if my story was true or not !
When I finally cleared customs I went to pick up my luggage. A hard Samsonite and a fishing-rod bag. But an agent was waiting patiently for me in his desk, and he asked me to open it all and show him what I was bringing.

The big Samsonite contained a lot of clothes, a radio with its tuner and power supply, and a pair of football shoes that I brought if I had the opportunity to play rugby anywhere.
I was obviously a bit afraid about the radio, and it was the first thing I showed the agent, but he didn't pay any attention to it at all...he kept searching...till he found those rugby shoes and took them away.

He said they could fine me for bringing that, but I didn't understand anything ! He then said that there was still soil in the shoes, from the last field I played, and they had to be cleaned. Very gently a woman took the shoes to clean them. After that first experience, I proceeded to have a wonderful stay in OZ Land.

Australia is such a nice and big country to visit, and in so few days I could only visit Sydney's area, but I had enough time to realize that I would go there if I had to move from home to a different country. Just let me thank Ben's, Frank's, Jay's, Victor's and Peter's hospitality and friendship. These guys made me really live some of my happiest days ever.
Truly thanks.

NEW ZEALAND

While I was in Sydney I thought it would be a good idea to visit New Zealand being so close to it. I asked Ben if he knew any low fare company flying from Sydney to New Zealand and of course there were. Next step was getting in touch with a couple of good friends from New Zealand. Ian in Christchurch (South Island) and Tom in Wellington (North Island).

Well honestly Tom and I never met before, not even by internet or by radio, but the guys in Sydney told me to get in touch with him anyway, and tell him I was going to go there.

South Island

So my trip to New Zealand would take me about a week. I arrived at Christchurch, where Ian was waiting for me.
He would gently let me stay at his house, but he had also prepared a nice surprise for me. He would bring me to Hokitika, a well known touristic place on the South island's West coast, and that meant we would have to cross the New Zealand Alps, an important mountain range with glaciers and fantastic landscapes. What a great idea !

Ian and I had met for first time by radio back in 1991. It is such an exciting moment whenever you meet in person someone that you have spoken to for so long and who lives in your antipodes. It seems you may never meet that guy on the other side of the radio, but sometimes it happens and it is just wonderful.

Ian took the day off for me in order to show me Christchurch. It is a wide town, spread out among mountains which offer very nice panoramic overviews. Unfortunately the day wasn't very pleasant...it was June and the winter had already arrived. The temperature was about 10ºC. And I always thought that I would never feel cold in the South Pacific !

The day was exhausting, and at night we decided to stay at home and check out for propagation on the radio...the following day was meant to be exhausting after a long drive through the mountains till the West Coast...

Have you watched the Lord of the Rings? If so, you will maybe recognise some landscapes shown below. The movie was filmed in the New Zealand Alps, a place that keeps a kind of magic atmosphere of quietness and mysticism. That place offers also very astonishing landscapes with deep valleys and high water falls. There you can also find some of the most amazing animals on Earth, such as the kiwi or the kea...in fact we had the opportunity to meet by chance a big kea which was looking forward to eating our car's rubber. On several occasions there have been reports about these kind of birds eating any rubber made thing from the cars, while the car's owner could only look at it, as these spieces (kiwi and kea) are highly protected by law, and anyone attacking or killing these animals can be severely punished. Fortunately for us, the kea wasn't so hungry that day. He was only enjoying the cold and the rain, while looking at us.

So, after the meeting with Mr. Kea we decided to make an stopover halfway between Christchurch and Hokitika, right in the middle of the Alps. At a place called Arthur's Pass. There we had lunch, a kind of typical New Zealanders meal, as I haven't seen anywhere else in the world a big sausage with a wooden stick in it. The food was fast and tasty.
The "highway" to the West coast is nothing else than a 2-lane road, with some dangerous curves and a couple of ill-thought bridges, where the road suddenly stretches to just 1 lane on both directions, plus the railway!
I had to pray all I knew when we drove through one of those...I didn't want to see a truck or a train coming fastly towards us right in the middle of the bridge! NO WAY OUT !

Highway-railway bridge, c'mon c'mon c'mon!!!!

Once at Hokitika we found the town was really a touristic resort...but in summer. We were already in winter and the season had finished one month ago. So the life there at that time was particularly quiet,...so quiet that I almost thought I was in the Scottish Highlands in the middle of nowhere. The weather was still rainy and grey and the lack of activity turned me a bit sad and melancolic for a while...However, on the way back to Christchurch the clouds started to disappear and we could see better views of the sunny Alps.

So, my visit to the South island was about to end. Just some time left for shopping and to thank Ian for such a fantastic stay before taking a small plane which would bring me to Wellington, right on the other side of the channel.
Tom would be waiting for me at the airport and I was about to visit the North island and the capital city of New Zealand.

North Island

The Cook strait is one of those very windy places sometimes. Flying across it in such weather conditions can be awful for those who don't enjoy flying, or just a big fun for those who like big emotions in a roller-coaster. Even landing seems rather complicated ! I had fun I must say.

My first impression on the North island was that I noticed more movement comparing to the South Island. Let me compare the South island to the Scottish Highlands, as I previously stated, while the North island would be the South of England...Hampshire, for example.
That's of course about Wellington, on the South coast of the island. On the North coast there is the biggest town of New Zealand, Auckland, and that is like any other big town anywhere else in the world. I didn't have time to visit Auckland, however Tom and his family had prepared me some sight-seeing to Wellington and the country side which would fullfill my curiosity about New Zealand.

Wellington is, like Christchurch, a city spread out among little mountains which control its daily activity all over.
Fortunately the weather had improved and we went out for a visit around Wellington. Lovely views from any of those mountains to the city and to the ocean. It was a combination of the blue colour of the ocean with the very green mountains surrounding the city area. To be a capital city, Wellington is not so big...I would even say rather quiet and tidy. It looked that all the stress of a capital city had been transfered to Auckland.

After the sight seeing, Tom had a brilliant idea. We went to the Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa, a place where I could discover the history of this fascinanting country and the big Maori culture. We all had a great time int there, specially Bianca, Tom's little daughter. (She must not be so little now though!)
We were really tired, it had been like a marathon and we wanted to have a rest on the evening. Well, that was the excuse. Both Tom and I knew there would may be an opening to Europe on the radio, and we didn't want to miss it.
Time then to enjoy a fantastic sunset at Tom's house and a fantastic dinner all together, Bromwyn (Tom's wife), Bianca, Tom and I. It was such a nice meal, and I discovered Tom and Bromwyn's appreciation for wines. We would even visit a winery in the country side on the following day. But before that, let's CQ DX !

A shame I wouldn't have more time to spend in New Zealand, but I was so happy to visit that country, and specially to meet such a kind people. Ian, Tom, Bromwyn, Bianca and other ham radio friends that I had the opportunity to meet during my short stay in New Zealand.
Thanks, and see you soon again!

- CHAPTER II -