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Published: January 26th 2009
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Heh everyone,
Loved the South Island but actually preferred the North Island..think the weather may have had an effect as it wasnt great for much of our visit...
On Sunday 11th caught the Interislander ferry from wellington to Picton-took about 3.5 hours-some fab scenery as we neared Picton. Drove a beautiful scenic route by the coast "The Queen Charlotte Way". haeded up through Nelson towards Abel Tasman National Park, where we stayed in Kaiteriteri.
Very nervous start to Monday for me as we had booked a half-day kayaking along the coast of Abel Tasman ( ashamed to say, I cannot swim but really wanted to do this). It was amazing-we were in a 2 person kayak and were joined by another Dublin couple and our guide. We saw some eye-opening scenery, birds, even some dolphins in the distance and the highlight-"Split Apple Rock". We managed to stay afloat too, thankfully. That eve, we headed 280km south to Westport on the West coast.
Not much happening in Westport so headed south towards Franz Josef. stopped at Cape Foulwind to view a seal colony. Its breeding season so we saw a bull, all his females abd lots of babies-spectacular! The bull
is so much bigger than the females, and the babies, so cute!
Our next stop was Hokitika-a lovely small town by the coast,famous for its jade stone. This green stone dwells far up in the mountains in Hokitika and is only accessible by air. According to Maori culture, you can only receive a jade as a gift and it "chooses" you. If it doesn't, you will misplace it quickly. Arrived at our destination, Franz Josef late that eve to find the town almost booked out, but we managed.
Decided not to book a glacier walk (v expensive) and walked by ourselves to the terminals of both glaciers-Fox and Franz Josef. it was something else to see the huge rivers of ice nestled in between the mountains. P (geog guru) was much more impressed with Fox, however, Frans Josef was more pretty to look at. There was an eerie feeling around Fox-they still hadn't recoevred the body of one of the brothers killed by an ice-fall some days previous. An elderly relative was just sitting there staring at the glacier.
On we headed another 280km further south towards Wanaka. Again, magnificent scenery (through the Southern Alps). This country
is just so beautiful! deceided to just stay put around Wanaka/Queenstown for a few days as the driving proved a bit tiring.
Wanaka was really pretty. With much fear, we both did 12,000ft skydives over Lake Wanaka. Wow! It's just not right to be jumping out of planes! we were petrified but what a buzz!!!! We were free falling for 45seconds before the parachute opened. my guy decided to start dancing mid-air and kept me moving left and right, over and back to the tune of "Let's dance"...crazy dude! Thought he wasn't gonna stop! Pearse loved it -he was more scared about the shaky plane that took us up there. Headed out that night for a few drinks to celebrate.
Headed to Queenstown early Friday morning. stopped off on the way to watch ( with no intention of doing)the poor suckers who were doing the Nevis bungy jump. Must say it looked nothing compared to the skydive!! Quenstown was very nice but unfortunately the weather was very Irish-wet and cold. We still manged a couple of nice walks but we spent most of our time indoors. Due to the bad weather decided to bail out of Queentown earlier
than planned and headed east to Oamaru.
Oamaru is a small enough town. We headed there to see the penguins. Its famous for yellow eyed and little blue penguins. We spent form 7.30pm until 10.30pm watching penguins coming home, back to shore after they had spent a long day fishing in the ocean. They were hillarious, really small -only about 12" tall. They gather together in a group for safety (safety in numbers) far out in the ocean and swim "slowly" towards the shore. Priceless watching the little heads bobbing up and down in the water and then belly-flopping onto the rocks. Sme of them had to make several attempts before they safely on the rocks. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures as the flash could damage their sight.
Headed to Christchurch early Monday morning. weather still not great. seemed like a nice city but we are trying to avoid cities as we just end up spending lots of money in them so didnt stay long. The following morning, took the road north to Kaikoura. Kaikoua is known for its vast marine life-albatrosses, whales, dolphins and seals. The seas were too rough for dolphin and whale watching so
did a lovely 3.5 hour hike along the peninsula. Also, we got up, close and personal with a seal which had come onto the rocks for a sleep.
Early start again on Wednesday. We headed to Picton to catch the interislander ferry back to the North island. weather had picked up again-saw some beautiful scenery en route-mountains on one side, ocean on the other and lots of vineyards.
Stayed in Okahune for the night and then headed to Waitomo caves. Went on a 3.5 hour Spellbound tour of the caves. They were spectacular. One of the caves was full of glowworms. We went on a raft through it and it was just like staring at the night sky full of stars.
Headed to Raglan the following morning. Raglan is on the West coast and is a really cool, hip, surfer town with black sand beaches. The black sand was really soft but difficult to get off your clothes.
Next and second last stop in NZ was Hamilton. Here we had a night on the town with Damo (a friend from home). great fun! Finally, we landed in Auckland and shed a tear leaving our camper back.
We've had some good times in NZ. Have to say its nice to be back in a backpackers though. 2 days here to explore and chill out and then fly to Sydney on Wednesday.
Ciao for now.....Estellax
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