Wellington to Franz Josef

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February 20th 2008

Published: February 22nd 2008

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pinkfloyd

Cruise

Bonjour! im a little bit behind trying to catch up!

Nelson

We left Wellington early to catch the ferry over to the little town of Picton where we caught the next bus to the town of Nelson. It was a stunning ferry ride up the fiords (see pictures). Nelson is a beautiful little costal town, as we had to spend 3nights there the first day we just did a bit of shopping and saw a film in the evening. Next day Lyndsay went off early and spent most of the day bone carving (she made a little necklace) i on the other hand had a nice lie in and got up about one. We went out in the evening for a few drinks but relatively quiet as another early start.
Abel Tasman
We were up early to get a bus to small village of Marahau where we embarked on a 4hour walk through the coastal beauty of Abel Tasman national park. We walked from Marahau to Torrent bay and then got a water taxi back to our bus in Marahau (http://www.abeltasman.co.nz/NationalPark/Maps.aspx) Stunning walk with a couple of scenic dips in the sea.

Westport

We stopped off in the morning

Zack and Chewy posing beautifully

for a little stroll around Nelson lake before heading to yokel village of westport, The girls made a lovely valentines dinner here while the boys went out on the NZ invention called the jet boat. Didnt really get any pics as very wet but the boat is basically a boat that works by sucking in water and firing it out at high speeds as it has no rudder or propellor is can travel faster and through only 4inches of water, it can also do 270 degree spins sending water everywhere! a thoughrouly wet experience.

Lake Mahinapuha

The morning started badly with a wet coastal walk and a very unhappy lyndsay! after this the day brightend up and we stopped of in some coastal town to buy fancy dress for our stop in lake Mahinapuha, The theme; Tramps and Prostitues, I of course made a beautiful Prostitue while lyndsay was a little Tramp. The stop over is just a cheap motel by the road that does this every night, run by and 80 year old man called Les, especially for all the kiwi buses and all the walls of the pub are lined with photos of the dressed up busses,

Cruise

a very messy night!

Franz Josef

The main attration in franz Josef is the massive 16km long Glacier! We spent two nights here so that everyone can spend a day doing some sort of activity on the glacier. Lyndsay chose the all day glacier walk (i know walking for lyndsay! she is still complaining about her legs) which is an 7-8hour walk up the glacier itself kitted out in boots and crampons! (dont have her photos at moment will update later) I chose the more extreme Ice Climbing which was really good fun. After walking to and up the glacier we pulled out our ice axes and crampons to climb a couple virtical and overhung walls of ice the second of which was about 25metres high.

Additional photos below

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