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Published: August 9th 2007
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Queen Charlotte sounds
views from the hilltop - not bad eh hello again,
I have now arrived on the south island, which is absolutely stunning. I started with a few days at a chilled out eco retreat type backpackers in the Queen Charlotte sounds. Access by boat or walking from the Queen Charlotte track, nice accomodation right by the water with private beach, lots of hammocks all over the place to lie in, free kayaks to use, spa, log fire in evenings etc. Yeah basically pretty nice, spent the time hiking up onto the queen charlotte track and onto a hilltop lookout for 360 degree views of the queen charlotte sounds - pretty stunning. Also did a couple of sea kayaking trips but didn't see any seals. Lay in hammocks by day and at night to look at the stars... so clear as obviously no light pollution right out there. Another really cool thing was the phosphorecent plankton in the water which glows when disturbed at night... really cool and looks great when you swim in it, although it was pretty damn cold.. but you can see it glistening on your skin and looks really stunning underwater. Luckily could jump into the hot spa afterwards to warm up. In fact was
so good did it 2 nights in a row. Basically had a great time there and met Adam and Cheryl from Portsmouth (ended up travelling with them for the next couple of weeks) and Jenn from Toronto so was all good.
Next stop was Nelson for St Patricks day, so found the obligatory irish bar, and discovered that the rumour we had heard about the band there was probably true - it goes that the band wanted somewhere where they could always play regardless of their lack of talent so the lead singer bought the pub!! Had a good couple of days in Nelson hanging out with Adam, Cherly and Jenn - checking out the sights and more beaches.
After that headed to Abel Tasman National Park on the Stray bus and stayed there for 3 nights. Staying at a place called Old Macdonalds farm - I kid you not. Was actually a working farm with lamas and stuff...
Main attraction of the area is the coastline - very very nice and the track that follows along the coastline. We took a water taxi into the national park and then walked back along the track stopping at
Abel Tasman National Park
One of the beaches we visited... still its summer in the uk or nearly so at least you can visit the beach yourselves soon! lots of little coves and beaches and doing a spot of swimming etc. Really good fun and the scenery was amazing - stunning beaches etc. Also got introduced to the lovely critters that are sandflies...... more about the little b##*#*s later...
After Abel Tasman we headed accross to the West Coast of NZ which is really spectacular to see. Stopped at various places to do short walks at a place called Cape Foulwind and also at Pancake rocks which is a pretty famous landmark - basically the geology etc has led to the rocks looking like stacks of pancakes. At these places and the other photo stops we did on the bus people would all get off and very soon after start swatting themselves and muttering various profanities at the damn sandflies (actually blackflies) their bites itch a lot and swell up nicely as well!!
So basically the west coast was stunning, driver reckons it is better than the great ocean road in autralia but will have to withhold judgment on that till ive been there. The west coast had a jurassic park feel to it, with all the undisturbed vegetation and ferns and valleys leading away from
the coast etc, could easily be a set from the old dinosuar movies. And to make it even better the weather was pretty good all the way down the coast - it rains a lot here apparently.
Next stop was a tiny settlment called Barrytown, with one backpackers/pub and about 40 residents. Now tradition has it that everyone gets dressed up in barrytown and the guys have to dress as girls.... they had a lot of dressing up clothes there and we all got into the spirit of it and had a lot of fun... there were some dodgy outfits going on thats for sure... I know that the Stray lot there will agree. Kinda felt sorry for the locals as everynight there is a bus load of travellers taking over their bar dressed in womens clothes....
After the fun in the bar the next day did a spot of bone carving, which was pretty neat - got to make a bone pendant in a traditional Maori design.
The next stop on the west coast was the Franz Josef glacier. The town of Franz Josef has built up around the glacier, which is easy to access and
Pancake Rocks
West Coast NZ walk on with a guiding company, you can also take helicopter flights onto the glacier or do a spot of iceclimbing which is what I did.
This was a whole lot of fun, we got all the kit - rigid plastic mountaineering boots, crampons and ice axes and harnessess and then were taken up onto the glacier which was pretty stunning. We walked around on the glacier and then stopped and the guides set up some top ropes on ice walls and we got to climb them. It is quite tricky to get the technique working properly and keeping the points of the crampons in the ice and not knackering yourself out totally - they say its more about technique than fitness, but was pretty knackered by the end of the day. Hugely enjoyable tho and certainly going to try it again sometime.
From Franz Josef we went down to Haast and then through Haast pass and headed inland, stopping at several places for walks and photo stops etc. Spent the night in a small town called Makaroa, where some people went Jet boating - can do this all over NZ, so a few of us went for a
West Coast NZ
Says it all really walk down to the river and were down there when the jet boat got back - now the driver spotted us and asked those on the boat if we were from the bus and should he get us wet? now our lovely mates on the boat said YES (thanks guys really appreciate it!!) so he proceeded to absolutley drench us, when we saw him coming but couldnt really get out of the way, was expecting some heavy spray but not the wall of water that drenched us!!
The evening in Makaroa was Karaoke night, so we all got involved - its basically put on for us. Having a group of Swedes with us there was the obligatory Abba songs done, and various other songs well and truly butchered... The night ended with some fun and games on the deserted road outside the hostel, but as they say what happens in Makaroa stays in Makaroa!!
Next day was onto Wanaka, which is a really cool town by a lake surrounded by mountains, but I will leave that for another day.
That reminds me feel free to leave comments on my blogs, I take the time (although you wouldnt
think so with the standard of my spelling and grammar) to write these things for your amusment, interest, to make you all really jealous etc so sthe least you can do is stick your comments on there. If they are really offensive I can just delete them!!
Till the next time
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James Reed
non-member comment
Hi Geoff - looks like you are still having an amazing time out there you lucky b$%~@#d! The pics are stunning! Hope all is well. J