Blogs from West Coast, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 25

The Moari (Natives) call New Zealand "Aotearoa" which literally translates too: "Land of the long white cloud". We reckon a more suitable name would be "Land of too much long white cloud, and too much rain"! The weather today was terrible: cold, rain, and thick low cloud. We couldn't see those supposed fantastic views which all the brochures, leaflets and postcards show: The Fox or Franz Josef Glacier, the snow capped mountains, or the rain forests. Except for a walk around Fox Glacier village and Franz Josef township we petty much spent the whole day couped up inside the campervan. Campervans a small spaces by the way! Our Heli-Hike in the afternoon on Fox Glacier but it was cancelled - slightly gutting(!) but we're almost glad as we can now save the money for something else ... read more

Our first stop today was Cape Foulwind. Not much here other than a path along the coast and a lighthouse. After just a few minutes we left again. Our second stop was at the Tauranga Bay to sea a Seal colony. Here there were many seals; pups and adults, males and females, sleeping and playing. There weren't many in the water as there was a huge swell so there was plenty of surf and large crashing waves in every direction. As we followed the West Coast Road south, the sea to our right and huge cliffs and mountains to our left, we followed the forever twisting road to reach Punakaiki. Our third stop of the day was Punakaiki Cavern - we explored it with our head torches; not particulary intresting to describe - so we won't! ... read more

We left Nelson at 8:15 heading towards Greymouth an excellent hot day. The bus went through Hope Saddle and Buller Gorge following some spectacular scenery we stopped in the Paparoa National Park where some of us took an hours walk along a good coastal path and we saw New Zealand Fur seals the bus met up with us at the end of the path and proceeded towards Greymouth. We stopped once more at a place call Punakaki which have blow hols and pancake rocks the pancake rocks look like animals. From there we went to Greymouth where I stopped in the Noah’s Ark Hostel which had rooms named after animals I was in the tiger room which had Rosie from Edinburgh in, the wall had a picture of a tigers head looking out at us. 2 ... read more

Being out of queenstown at last - we were all very keen to go some "activities"... so upon our arrival in Fox Glacier town, we headed straight off the the "little known secret" that was Gillespie beach. It get's a one word mention in one of the guidebooks, and otherwise we had heard from a couple people that it was well worth the visit. And to add frills to the occasion, it was Judith's 24th Birthday - a bbq was obligatory.,... despite the greying clouds and ominous rain! Maybe it was because it was one of the first "touristy" things we had done in a while, maybe it was because it was jude's birthday - but whatever the reason, we had a great time huddled around our disposable barbeque, sheltering from the wind and rain, ... read more

Just a quicke here, thought the photos were too good to not include. Also thought I had better set the scene for my travels on from Queenstown. Of the 3girls I was sharing a flat with, 1(clodagh) stayed in queenstown and myself and the other 2(Judith/Niamh) took "Chavvy" (their shared car), for a 7day loop of the South Island. We would end up in Christchurch where Niamh would drive Chavvy back to Queenstown, and Judith and I would fly to Wellington to see Gogo and Barry (friends who relocated to wellington at the end of the ski season) If you made sense of all of that, congratulations - if you didnt, as long as you took that i went on a road trip, you'll be fine! As previously mentioned, Prison Break (the TV show) was a ... read more