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Published: April 13th 2010
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Due to higher internet prices and restrictions on data transfer making uploading photos near on impossible, the blog entries have got a bit behind, so this entry is going to be a catch up of our time on the South Island to bring everything almost up to date. Apologies for the length and the number of photos!
Day 36 - 57
Whilst in the Marlborough wine region we lunched at a couple of vineyards and also did a cycling tour around the area stopping for wine tastings at any vineyards we saw along the way, which was plenty. It was a bit of a wobbly ride back to our friend’s house, especially after the place we found doing liqueur tastings, but then it started raining on us! Whilst at our friends house we had to jump start a car, but surprisingly it wasn’t our van.
Heading further north we picked up some tasty fruit fresh from the orchards and found a campsite right on Pohara beach, after passing some naked cyclists! We walked on the beach, got a licence to have a fire on the beach and took photos of the sunsets. We visited Wharariki beach, almost at
the northernmost point of the south island and went to Pupu springs where fresh water erupts from the ground at a rate of 40 bath tubs per second. We had a huge ice cream in Takaka, despite asking for a single scoop and neither of us managed to eat it all.
We went kayaking and walking in the Abel Tasman national park, which was amazing as we had beautiful weather and there were some stunning beaches. The funniest part was when we were taken back from the national park on a boat which then drove up the beach onto the back of a tractor and we were towed along the road in the back of the boat. We also met a funny German couple who had trouble steering their kayak with the rudder, ending up going in a zig zag rather than a straight line, almost colliding with the other kayaks and then called their boat the divorce boat!
Driving towards the West coast we stopped and walked across the longest swing bridge in NZ at Buller Gorge. We also stopped at Westport where we did a short walk to a lighthouse and another to a seal colony,
where we weren’t expecting to see any seals due to the season, but were pleasantly surprised. We did a walk through some forest to the coast recommended by our kayaking guide to see the crashing waves and then had a panic attack when Jake thought he had dropped the van keys on the beach, but they were in fact in one of the hundred pockets in his bag. Last stop on the epic drive were rocks which looked like pancakes due to the layers of stone they are made up of.
Further down the west coast we visited both Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers, not walking directly on either, but up to the terminal face of both. Franz Joseph was more impressive as there was a large river with huge boulders of ice alongside it, and the ice looked quite blue in parts. In glacier country we picked up our first hitchhiker who had walked to the glacier and didn’t realise how far it was back to the village. The weather got a lot cooler and layering up our clothes to keep warm and sleeping in a drafty van was not much fun. We did warm up a bit
when we had a dip in the thermal pools which had temperatures varying between 36 and 40 degrees.
The weather got worse and we had several sleepless nights in the van where heavy rain, or thunder echoing off the mountains kept us awake. From Wanaka we did a long walk up to see the Rob Roy glacier, but it was a bad weather day and rained most the way up and there was no shelter at the top. Back on the road we saw a big house on the back of a lorry - the NZ way of moving house - which was so wide it almost took up both lanes of the road. It also kept hitting tree branches along the way, so the house had stray twigs stuck to the top of it! We had a wander around in Queenstown, which is the adrenalin capital of NZ due to the ability to do bungy, canyoning, rafting, jet boating etc. but due to the weather we gave all of those a miss and continued on the road towards Milford Sound.
After a very windy drive to Te Anau we discovered the road to Milford Sound had been
washed away in the storms of the last few days so no trips were running and all trips to Doubtful Sound were fully booked. If we had known this in advance we wouldn’t have driven all that way there! So we continued our drive south, stopped at Bluff, almost the most southernly point, continued along The Catlins seeing several waterfalls, we also spotted some huge sea lions on a secluded beach, feed some sheep called Mint and Sauce, ate some hot cross buns, watched the NZ version of The Apprentice and saw a very scenic lighthouse at Nugget Point.
Heading north again this time up the east coast, we visited Cadbury World in Dunedin and saw the world’s steepest street, although neither of us fancied attempting to walk up it and the photo really doesn’t show the angle very well at all. We saw the Moeraki boulders which are some random rocks on a beach which are almost perfectly spherical and finally found some sunshine again.
We looked around some historic buildings in Oamaru and then hit the road to Mt Cook. Not checking accommodation availability in advance we ended up in the DOC (department of conservation) campsite
which had toilets but no showers. It was also so windy that night that we seriously felt as if the van was going to tip over. We did some walks in the area and saw mini icebergs in Tasman lake.
Driving back from Mt Cook we stopped at Lake Tekapo and saw the Church of the Good Shepard, a picture perfect little church on the side of the lake that is apparently very popular for weddings. Unfortunately at the time that we visited the place was swarming with coach loads of tourists and the weather was rubbish, so not ideal wedding conditions!
After over 4 weeks sleeping in the van we finally caved at Hamner Springs where we stayed in a lovely B&B one night and a motel another night. We chilled there with visits to the thermal pools, ate takeaway pizza and watch films on tv - what a luxury!
Nearly back at the top of the south island we visited Kaikoura, where we had a couple of days of lovely sunshine and went sea kayaking to see some seals. We also saw hundreds of dolphins splashing around and jumping out of the water, just a
few hundred metres off the coast. It was from here that we posted some clothes and boots home, not cheap, and their loss didn’t seem to make any extra room in our bags! It was also here that the van had to go into the workshop to have the starter motor replaced - that explained its reluctance to start each morning!
And finally we reached Christchurch where we were flying out of. We only had one night there and after trying to wash our clothes ready for the next leg of the trip we didn’t have much time to explore apart from a stroll in the botanical gardens, a quick nose round cathedral square and then Korean food for dinner.
So we had an absolutely fantastic time in NZ and could have easily spent a lot longer here, particularly in the North Island, as our time there was a bit shorter. There are several things we would still like to do here, so we will definitely be back at some point. We will try to avoid March again though as this is the end of the financial year and all the councils use this month to spend their
excess roadworks budget, resealing roads etc. We ended up with several chips in our windscreen, but luckily we had taken out extra insurance to cover this. Our highlight was definitely the Tongariro Alpine Crossing so would thoroughly recommend this to everyone with an interest in hiking (or tramping as they call it over here).
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Paul
non-member comment
Great stuff
Some snaps worthy of National Geographic! Bet you enjoyed Wairau River - tasted there Sauvignon Blanc in UK, & it's terrific.