New Zealand - Coast to Coast (Franz Josef to Kaikoura) - "Thanks William Part 2"

---

---

Hello All!

So we left Haast and Jonny's pride behind and made our way over to Franz Josef Glacier, something which we were both really looking forward to. We decided to take the time to drive via Jackson's Bay which was supposed to be a brilliant drive - and it didn't disappoint. We stopped in Jackson's Bay and walked round with a cup of tea trying to avoid the sandflies. The Bay literally consisted of about 3 buildings and a public toilet but the view over the sea was amazing, unfortunately it was out of season but there tends to be a lot of penguins and other birds there. The rest of the drive to Franz Josef tested Jonnys driving skills. We drove up mountain after mountain on really winding roads and ended up in the clouds on a number of occasions! But it did mean that we were rewarded with some great panoramic views.

We arrived in the relatively small town of Franz Josef to a campsite nestled in a mini rainforest. Getting to the only supermarket we bought dinner, freaked out that we couldn't buy any of our favourite Mac's beer and discovered that NZ law means they can't sell any alcohol over the Easter weekend. Weirdos. So we stocked up! After having a look at our options we decided that paying $300-$400 for a heli-hike or guided tour of the glacier was out of the question so we settled on a free hour and a half walk at Okarito Lagoon (about 15 min drive away) which took us through a forest and up to a viewpoint which looked over the whole lagoon and into the sea before walking up to the glacier. The walk allowed us to get 300m away from the ice which meant we could see the light blue tints, the sharp edges and the sheer size of the thing! Neither of us having ever seen a glacier before it was pretty amazing and definitely worth the 30 minute walk up to it. As we turned round to leave the clouds approached and chased us all the way back to the camper. NZ rains quite a lot!!

The next morning we drove up the coast to Hokitika - the home of genuine NZ pounamu. Another small town situated right on the beach which would be great if the rain wasn't following us. We spent some time walking around the town admiring all the really expensive, but intricately crafted, greenstone. Unless you're after some pounamu or it's nice enough weather to lay on the beach Hokitika doesn't really have much else to offer other than breaking up your journey up the coast. Our campsite for the night was like Tesco carpark with only 2 other people weird enough to stay there.

Our next destination was Hanmer Springs, which being much closer to the East Coast we were hoping it would bring us some sun! We drove up via Punakaiki, the home of the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. It rained and rained and rained the whole way there but someone was obviously looking after us as when we walked up to see the rocks it stopped momentarily. The terrible weather actually gave us the most amazing view of the waves crashing into the rocks creating massive walls of water. The Pancake Rocks are basically limestone formations which have somehow been transformed, and they don't know how, into loads of thin layers which look like a stack of pancakes. We made our way up and round through Reefton before heading over to Hanmer Springs. At this point we were reminded that it was Easter weekend when we were repeatedly told that campsites were full. We ended up in a very busy campsite full of NZ families on an unpowered site, which on the positive side was cheaper! Considering what has been written about me in the last few blogs I will take a moment here to point out to everybody that I had mentioned that Easter weekend might be a problem to Jonny when we arrived in NZ... massive told you so!!

The next day we made our way over to Kaikoura, our last stop on our short tour of the South Island (sob.) We had booked a Whale Watching Tour a couple of days in advance which I would recommend - most time slots were already fully booked. We awoke to the first bright blue sunny sky we'd seen in a while and were slightly smug that we would be spending the day on the ocean. Later that afternoon we arrived at the tour office to be told that it was cancelled as the whales were too far out. Gutted. Luckily we were able to nab a space on the 7.45am tour the following day. Again, we got to the office to be told that the boat was going out but there was a seasickness warning! Climbing on board I, as advised by the crew, walked to the back of the boat which was supposed to be better for people susceptible to seasickness. "Ohhh don't be a granny!!" some cocky person told me so we ended up sitting right at the front. 10 minutes in and neither me or Jonny were looking too clever - at points the boat was nearly vertical going over some massive waves which would have been great fun if we weren't cradling our sick bags praying that the boat would stop! Safe to say that Jonny wasn't calling me a granny by the end of it. Although the company have a 98% success rate at spotting some whales we were, of course, unlucky enough to be in the 2% and we went back slightly disappointed. On the way back to shore we managed to see a massive group of Dusky dolphins prancing about showing off near the beach and were able to get 80% of our money back - although we had basically paid someone to make us really seasick for 3 hours!!

Off we went back to Christchurch to give up our lovely little camper and say our goodbyes to New Zealand. Our flight wasn't until 6.35am so we had another long night floating about Christchurch and the airport ahead of us. We both agree that New Zealand is somewhere we would love to come back to. The laid back atmosphere, freedom, beautiful landscape, ever-changing scenery and ability to go anywhere at anytime meant we fell in love with the country. The towns are small, as are most of the cities, everything is expensive, sometimes you drive the camper into a fence but it's a place I would recommend that anyone visit. You can't put into words what it's truly like - you'll just have to visit and let me know if I'm right!

---