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Published: October 19th 2008
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Queen Charlotte Drive
View of the Queen Charlotte Sound Leg 5: The Top of the South Island
We decided to drive along the Queen Charlotte drive, another narrow and windy road with some amazing views of the sounds at the north of the island. Having driven a little too far and not found how to get on to it we doubled back and asked for directions only to be wished 'luck'! Feeling slightly apprehensive we started the climb up the hillside and stopped at many of the viewpoints to look out over the blue waters. After about an hour we arrived at our planned campsite where we settled for the evening with a Readers' Digest (the second we had acquired on a long term basis) and some noodles on toast (we had planned to have soup, unfortunately we had brought the condensed stuff with no milk to make it!). We woke and drove towards Nelson in light drizzle where we stopped for a while to have a look round and checked into a motel for a bit of a treat since we were feeling pretty claustrophobic in the van and incredibly bored of readers digest! We went to see the prototype ring from 'Lord of the Rings'. After an
Abel Tasman
Stephanie at one of the many viewpoints in Abel Tasman national park afternoon of relaxing with a tv and spa bath in the room we headed into town for a nice meal at a local restaurant.
We felt pretty treated after all of that and so it was back to living life a little less luxurious the next day and drove to Abel Tasman national park where we did a short walk through the bush with views out over the sea. Stephanie's legs got tired sooner than mine and so I carried on a little further where I saw a seal on the beach. Mum and Dad had rang while we were walking and we arranged to meet up with them that night since they were crossing on the ferry. We met up in Havelock, the 'green lipped mussel capital of the world' and it was great to see them after being away for 9 weeks and their van made ours look tiny! After dinner we went back to their van (it was big enough for us all to sit in, unlike ours which was a push for just us sometimes!), had a few drinks and a game of cards and planned the following week.
Leg
Little and Large
Our titchy van next to mum and dad's monster truck! Six: To the Glaciers
We decided to head further south rather than venture back to Abel Tasman and Mum and Dad joined us. Our first night was at a lake near St. Arnaud. The view out over the lake to the start of the southern alps was amazing, just like a postcard! We awoke to a frosty van and welcomed going for breakfast in Mum's campervan since they had a heater! At the first town we stopped at I invested in a woolly hat to keep my head warm on future nights and had our first NZ pies. At Westport we also ventured out to the nearby seal colony for a view. At first we could hardly see them but soon their sporadic movements gave them away and when the large bulls of the family made a move they all started heading for the water to get away from them. We also stopped in Charleston in hope of seeing the little blue penguins, however we were there too early since they only come ashore at dusk. We stopped at the Pancake Rocks and blowholes a little further down the road the next day which were pretty impressive despite the
Seal Colony
Baby seal at Westport seal colony heavy drizzle dampening our spirits slightly. We continued the drive in pretty heavy rain down to the glaciers where we would stay for two nights. The first day we were due to go on the glacier hike but due to heavy thunderstorms throughout the night and into the morning we cancelled our booking. The heavy rain had caused our van to leak into the boot and soak up into our clothes there so the majority of the day was spent going back and forth to the onsite laundry and trying to stay dry and warm. The skies cleared slightly by the early evening so we went for a quick walk at the Franz Joseph glacier with mum and dad. The glacier was still partially covered with cloud towards the top and we were quite a distance from it at the viewing platform however it was still a pretty impressive structure! We then headed into town for a farewell meal with the folks since they were having to leave the next morning to start their drive back to Auckland.
Leg Seven: Back on our Own Again 😞
With the sun shining down on us mum and dad
Fox Glacier
like the mints!! headed north while we carried on the journey south, stopping at the Fox glacier and Lake Matheson. The lake was extremely still since it was protected from the wind by surrounding hills and provided an almost perfect reflection of Mt. Cook on it's surface. The drive continued down to Wanaka and finally Queenstown along the highest road in NZ, the Crown range at 1121m. The views from this were understandably amazing although the road fairly challenging to drive as ever! When we got to Queenstown we booked tickets for a kiwi haka show at the top of a hill overlooking the town. The show was very good, with Stephanie getting up on stage to learn some poi moves with the performers (and other audience members) and introduced us to some of the ceremonies of the Maori people. The following morning we booked to jump from a mountain. Fortunately Stephanie was firmly attached to a paraglider and pilot and I was attached to a hanglider and pilot. We both really enjoyed it and would do it again. As we descended we could see for miles and also saw hawks hovering over nearby ground and were both subjected to some aerobatics from
Paragliding
Stephanie up in the air! our respective tandem guides. I can understand how people become addicted to this sort of activity! The paragliding guide had told us how nice Milford sound was and so we set off that afternoon to drive that way. It was a long drive that took us up into the mountains and even through them! Homer's tunnel was started during the recession to provide something for men to do and as such is roughly carved through the mountain as a single lane with two passing places. It was quite surreal to go through at first but the return leg seemed much easier as we knew what to expect. The sounds themselves were very pretty to look at but didn't have much to do unless you chose to take a ferry ride out for the evening and so we found a campsite nearby for the evening. From there we drove down to Invercargill and Bluff, the southernmost trading port of NZ. There was a directional sign there indicating the distance from various cities and at nearly 19000km we could easily sing the Kaiser Chiefs for probably the last time ever. Invercargill seemed fairly big compared to places we had been so far,
Hang gliding
Paul mid-flight! however still nothing too large compared to what we are used to back home!
At halfway through (distance-wise) and over halfway in time it was time for us to start thinking about driving north, although there weren't really many options since we were at the bottom!
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