Advertisement
Published: August 28th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Pancake Rocks
Standing to attention We finally managed to tear ourselves away from the O'Neills and took the ferry from Wellington to Picton, to begin exploring the south island. We picked up a car in Picton and prepared ourselves for a few weeks of driving and exploring. This wasn't too much of a challenge for Joanna, who drives on an intermittent basis and owned a car for several years, but for Stephen...the last time Stephen had driven a car was 1994. 1994!!!
Joanna drove through stunning countryside for a couple of hours from Picton to Nelson. We were to get used to stunning scenery over the next couple of weeks, but at this stage we were still wowed by the beauty of the mountains and by the amazing skies, especially the clouds! We spent a pleasant day and night in Nelson including going, on recommendation, to the pub (the Victorian Rose) and the restaurant (Lambretta's) where our friends Alison and Blake Moss had their first date! Stephen had his first drive in over 12 years in Nelson. It was an interesting experience, shall we say, but we're still here writing this blog, so it can't have been too bad!
The next day we drove
Milford Sound
The dot on the far side of the water is a boat! up to the Marlborough Sounds, in the top right-hand corner of the south island. We stayed in a place called Te Mahia, a lovely little bay on the edge of the Queen Charlotte Track. We were a little taken aback when we checked in to find that the resort we were staying in had no keys to the rooms, because they didn't lock the doors! We soon acclimatised and had a wonderfully relaxing time, reading, walking and taking in the beauty of the area. A real highlight was going out on a boat with a local called Pete Bigley who gave us a great tour of many of the local bays, then took us to 'pick' some green-lipped mussels from his mussel farm. Green-lipped mussels are huge and a speciality of the area. We tried them raw on the boat (Joanna loved them but Stephen wouldn't recommend it), then ended up with a huge bagful to cook at our apartment!
From Te Mahia we drove south through Marlborough wine country to the seaside town of Kaikoura, on the east coast. We stayed in a B&B which had been converted from an old convent, which was different, and it was
here that we fulfilled one of Joanna's avowed aims for the trip, to swim with dolphins. It was an amazing experience, even more wonderful than we had imagined, but for the fact we had to get up at 5am to do it... Once we'd got over that, we had a brilliant time swimming with a pod of around 300 very playful wild dusky dolphins. It was fantastic to see them in their natural environment, swimming, jumping, playing and generally showing off.
While we were in Kaikoura we also went out swimming with seals, which was great fun. The seals swim in smaller groups and in shallower water than dolphins, meaning you don't have to worry about big waves and allowing you to spend more time getting to know the ones that play with you. The only downside of all this was the weather, which was cool and grey much of the time. Rather than the land of the long white cloud, as the Maoris call New Zealand, much of the time we were looking at the land of the long grey clouds...
From Kaikoura we drove inland and south to Lake Tekapo, which Joanna's parents had highly recommended
from their trip to NZ a few years ago. It was as beautiful as described, with a stunning, tranquil, turquoise lake surrounded by moutains, with an amazingly picturesque church looking out over it all. We didn't manage to find the chucken and chups place that they had recommended but we did find very good chups all the same!
From Tekapo we drove down to Wanaka, stopping en route to have a few glimpses of Mount Cook between the clouds. We had an enjoyable couple of nights in Wanaka, with great walks by the lake. From there we headed down towards Te Anau in the far southwest, stopping en route to meet friends in Queenstown for lunch by the lake. In Te Anau we experienced a few days of the typical local weather...rain! The west coast of NZ is one of the wettest places around and we saw it in all its glory. We had a very rainy drive to, and cruise on, Milford Sound, but the beauty of the area transcended any gripes with the weather. Milford Sound is just breathtaking. Huge cliffs form at the edge of vast expanses of water, dwarfing boats, people and everything in sight;
powerful waterfalls cascade down the cliff-faces at every turn; clouds sit and hang amidst, on top of and between the cliffs. It was incredible.
The poor weather stopped us from doing as much in the area as we would have wanted, but at least it saved us from the worst of the sandflies, which the area is notorious for! From Te Anau we drove to Queenstown, the adrenalin capital of NZ. We indulged in a high octane round of mini-golf, a walk in the park and a no-holds-barred ride on a cable car. It was extreme.
The poor weather was in evidence again as we drove from Queenstown to Fox Glacier. We spent the day driving through torrential rain, with huge waterfalls gushing onto the road and even over the car in some places! The weather was so bad that it became fun, though when we reached our farmhouse B&B in Fox Glacier we were pretty sure that the weather would prevent us from going on to the Glacier the following day. Amazingly, the next day dawned sunny and clear, which was very lucky for us, as it gave us the opportunity to take a trip to, and
on, the Fox Glacier.
The Fox and Franz Josef glaciers constitute one of only two places in the world where rainforest and glaciers meet (Patagonia is the other). We opted for an afternoon guided walk on the glacier, which was fantastic but very hard work! The walk to the glacier involved a 90 minute hike up, down and around the rainforest, which was not without some hairy moments - particularly the bit where the drop was so steep and the ledge so narrow that you had to hold onto chains to edge along...
The glacier itself was beautiful. Stunning. We were given crampons, giving us a better chance of stamping around on the ice without falling over, then set off - up and down steps, around ledges and generally enjoying the chance to explore a wonder of nature in a controlled but precarious manner. It was a bit scary and very tiring but a rare opportunity, which we were very glad we took.
From Fox we carried on up the west coast, through Punakaiki, with its geologically amazing Pancake Rocks. They're sandstone rock formations where the rocks have formed horizontally, with the mud between the rocks eroding,
Fox Glacier
Where glacier meets rainforest leaving shapes that look like pancakes. On from there to the best pizza we've ever eaten, in one of the strangest places we've ever eaten, Jack's Gasthof. A German who swapped his apartment in Berlin for a shack in the New Zealand countryside in 1970 and who has lived there ever since, serving up amazing food but neglecting to do much to the premises. Interesting. Great food though.
Our final stop on the south island was Kaiteriteri, where we caught up with the O'Neills again for a couple of days. Kaiteriteri is in the north-west of the island, on the edge of Abel Tasman national park. It has beaches of beautiful golden sand, unlike most of the south island (mostly grey and volcanic, if you were wondering), and we really enjoyed spending time kayaking, relaxing on the beach and going out on the O'Neills' boat. We could easily have stayed there longer than the two nights we had, but it was time to drop off our car and get the ferry back to Wellington, to start working our way up to Auckland.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.073s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0454s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb