Blogs from West Coast, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 12

Faulkner/Blunt Visit - Part III and final chapter....must move on to next round of news and guests.... January 8 - 12, 2009 Thursday - Left Queenstown fairly early to head to Wanaka to Puzzling World and quick visit with the Ellis family again. Syd forgot her shoes on Tuesday and we needed to collect them. The weather was nice in Wanaka and we should have stayed there longer. It was 2 days of HEAVY rain from mid day on Thurs until Friday night. The pass from Wanaka to the West Coast (Haast) was gorgeous - lush rainforests, beautiful waterfalls and great hikes. We drove past all of them since the rain just kept getting heavier and heavier. In hindsight, Michele and I both agree we should have taken a walk or two in the rain. We ... read more

Hi All, Sean and I spent the last two days back country hiking up a ridge behind the farm here, following it through to an alpine pond where we camped for the evening. The following day we followed the creek coming from the pond back to the farm. It took us 6 1/2 hrs up and 7 hours down, following our compass to creat a path. Sean, the goat, had a blast running straight up and around the ridges, where I was a little more nervous with the continuous thought of "How am I going to get down from here!?" There is a makeshift trail that lead up through the brush to the ridge, but we kept losing it, so Sean and I eventually resorted to climbing straight up the brush, using ferns and trees to ... read more

Hello From the glaciers in the West, we made our way up the moody Coast which changed from thick cloud to bright sunshine in the space of a few minutes! The rugged coastline is almost desolate - not many tourists venture over this way, and only 1% of the population lives here, so, at times we began to feel like the only ones in New Zealand! It was a long, windey drive but each new view of the rocky coastline gave us amazing views, and it made us make a comparrison to Oz - NZ, seems to be so comfortable with it's beauty that it forgets to rave about it, where-as in Oz the "Great Ocean Road" is one of the highlights, and greatly advertised!.....You can probably guess which we preferred - This country just has ... read more

EN FRANCAIS PLUS BAS MORE PHOTOS HERE So on day 5, enter the merry group Nicolette and her Dad Wim from the Netherlands, Bryn and his Dad Graham, and John all from the UK; and sadly, exit Josh. Suprisingly, there are no Germans in the group, while so far, it had seemed to me that there were more Germans than Kiwis in New Zealand... That evening, we camp in Okarito, a big town by South Island West Coast standards: at least 30 houses, and electricity. The evening dinner is a real feast: pork, lamb, chicken and veggies, roasted in a "hangi," the traditional Maori oven. Really easy to use: Dig a hole on the beach, fill it with some driftwood and light a fire. Once the fire is going well, place big flat stones on top ... read more

welcome again to another update of our serious trip report, so get yourself a decent drink, buckle up and enjoy a closer look behind the curtain of Kiwiland. Before we take off, we'd just like to let u know that u'r always on our minds no matter where we are and what we're doing. Winter is slowly approaching in your hemisphere, provided you are based north of the equator. So, don't give coldness much of a chance, keep your hearts warm. Yep, still floating thru NZ, still tryin' to find out why people make such fuss about it. We colonized the south island 10 days ago, have been to incredibely beautiful places including jewel-like coasts and bays, majestic mountain ranges, breathtaking fiordlands, dense forests where Tony got lost several times trying to burn some energy on ... read more