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Published: January 16th 2013
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Just a brief post to explain some of the photos:
We flew to Christchurch on 28th and got picked up from the airport by a lady who we were sharing a ride in her Kombi with her and a Canadian girl, who both turned out to be awesome great people! Littel more than an hour outside of Christchurch you get to the bottom of Mt Hutt, a popular ski field in winter.
After extensive bag searches we got to the camping field and set up. We then left the majority of the other festival goers, who were just chilling at their tents in large numbers having more than a few drinks, and went to actually listen to some music! 2days of great acts and good company.
We then travelled back to Christchurch on the road by 11am on the sunday after the festival and back to Michelle's, the driver of the Kombi's house, for a much needed shower and fish and chips, whilst watching the rain come down. The rain stopped and she gave us a lift to our rather swish camping accommodation for that night, Christchurch top10 complete with swimming pool, slides and movie room,
only the latter of which we actually sampled.
A restful night, yet again in our tent we packed up and took the 'orbiter' bus the long way round to our destination, Riccarton mall, where we were getting picked up a few hours later. After a spot of shopping we got on the West Coast shuttle at 2pm. It took us on a route through the hills, Castle Hill, a natural arrangement of limestone rocks used in the film the chronicles of Narnia.
The road then weeved its way through the mountains, through Arthur's pass village with high ranges either side and then down an extremely steep gorge with various means of diverting water over the road to prevent slippages.
At the end of this road the West Coast came into view and we drove along the coast for the last stretch into Greymouth.
Greymouth and the whole of theWest Coast of the south island gets a lot of rain and that night itdid not dissappoint use with copious amounts. Luckily we werent camping that night and we were in a snug unicorn themed room, Sam is still searching for the answer as to what noise a
unicorn makes! So new year's eve in Greymouth, raining outside, all that you can do is chill in with the unicorn, so thats what we did!
The next am the rain had stopped and we ventured into town to the only shop that was open to Sam's delight, The Warehouse so we stocked up on sale bargains until it was time to catch our next bus. Arriving just after 1pm. Setting off in the drizzle which added to the eeriness and widlness of the West Coast scenery.
After about an hour we stoped at Punakaiki, the pancake rocks, at which point it had stopped raining. It was high tide and we got some great shows of the water rushing in through the rocks and creating clouds of small droplets , particularly in one of the formations called the chimney pot where the water would rise up and the droplets would make it look like smoke coming out of the top.
Back on the coach we continued up the coast to Westport and then on to Nelson, through the Buller gorge.
After arriving at our original accommodation in Nelson and being told that they only had one
of us booked in and that everywhere else in town was full we eventually found a place just outside of town in an old hotel now a hostel and we were placed in a room with a kiwi and an english guy we werevery friendly. So friendly and in true Kiwi nature he lent us his car the next day so we could go to the Abel Tasman National park, about 45minutes away from Nelson and really the main reason why most people go to Nelson. A National Park set on the coast with secluded sand bays and clear blue water. We sampled a local market on the way and took a couple of scenic routes whilst eating locally grown cherries.
We took a short walk along the coast through the NP to a picnic spot and then came back to the car in time for the rain to start a little harder. We then decided to take the car further north to a place called Golden Bay, going through the hills where the clouds were really low at this point with a passing storm. Golden Bay wasnt so golden in the rain but still a great drive.
Day 2 in Nelson we were recommended to go to the local museum for an exhibition on the Taranaki wars, between the Maori and the English settlers over land rights and another exhibition on the carnivorous snail the Powelliphanta.
The next day we took a bus from Nelson to Picton,through Marlborough wine country. Arriving at Picton in gloriour sunshine we had a mooch around and then caught our next bus from there back to Christchurch via Kaikoura. Kaikoura is the place you go for whal watching which we did not have time for on this trip but we instead were seal spotting from the road as the seals lounged on the rocks by the roadside not really too bothered about the cars and coaches not far from them. We had 30minutes to get out in Kaikoura and marvel at the pebbly beach, clear blue sea and the backdrop of the Kaikoura ranges.
Arriving in Christchurch, Michelle kindly picked us up as we were staying at her's that night. As a thank you we all went out for a great Indian in a place on the beach called New Brighton which is where the picture of the pier is
from.
Then a very early flight back to Auckland and that was our trip over
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