Blogs from West Coast, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 36

Drive from Fox Glacier to Punakaiki As if to spite us, the sun decided to come out and shine on the day we left Fox glacier- after it had rained non stop for 2 and a half days. But we took full advantage of the sunshine and stopped at Lake Matheson on our way out of town. Lake Matheson is considered NZ's most photographed lake, due to its mirrored image of Mt. Tasman and Mt. Cook(the tallest peak in NZ). We walked the circle around the lake, through yet another bush clad NZ forest and made our way to the lakefront. what a beautiful body of water, hidden amongst trees and ducks and flax grass, and smack dab in the middle of some dairy and sheep farms. hopefully my photos will suffice. After the lake walk ... read more

- FOOD: Lunch sitting on the glacier. Another headlit dinner in a car park. - AREA: Walking (or rather mountaineering) the astounding Franz Josef glacier, squeezing through it's narrow blue caves and jumping crevaces. - PEOPLE: Mountaineering guides who knew what they were doing. Slow (and scared) people in our group. - WEATHER: Blue sky shining on this mass of ice. Sun 14th Aug: Franz Josef glacier is truly amazing. It's Maori name is Ka Roimata o Hine Hukatere which means 'Tears of the Avalanche Girl'. Such an enchanting name coming from the girl who lost her lover whilst climbing and was so heartbroken she cried so hard that her tears froze into the glacier. We got kitted up, crampons and all, for our three quarter day walk on it - something I was very much ... read more

I've been surprised how many travellers in this country get around by hitchhiking. They literally come here with nothing and hitch around, finding work wherever they can. It's legal here, only banned on the large 4 lane highways found in bigger cities like Auckland or Wellington. In Punakaiki (poo-na-kike-eee) we were roomed with an American named Kyle that's been doing it for 9 months now. He had $60 dollars to his name, but was doing just fine and had no worries. It was nice to meet someone like that, and his stories of tramping and other times of just being poor and desperate were inspiring. 20 years old, didn't go to college, and had never travelled in his life. He still seemed to have a good head on his shoulders, and seemed anxious to head back ... read more

Wet is for all the rain that we've seen on the West Coast, for the fantastically choppy Tasman Sea, and for the temperate rainforest that surrounds us here. Wild is for some of the weather we've seen, for the rugged scenery and for the day we had glacier hiking yesterday - fantastic. And the west coast of NZ is where we are now. We drove from Nelson over two days, mostly in rainy and overcast weather, through scenery which was stunning when the low cloud broke enough to be able to see it - high mountains, rolling waves, a road which hugged first the Buller river valley then the coastline. We broke the journed in a place called Punakaiki, where we stayed in the most interesting hostel yet - a place called Te Nikau Retreat, which ... read more

I know it's been a few weeks since my last lot of photos but have an afternoon to kill so thought I'd indulge you lucky people. After a few days back in Buenos Aires, I took the long flight from Santiago in Chile to New Zealand - crossing the international date line which meant the 5th May 2005 didn't actually exist for me (not intentional Kaz my dear!). After arriving about 4am I took a bus straight from Auckland to Tauranga - a large (by NZ standards) town in the north of the North Island, to see Jules first off. After a night on the piss - which made me ill all day the next day as I was recovering from a dodgy tummy and a bit out of practice - I spent a few days ... read more