http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Oceania , New Zealand , South Island , West Coast en-us Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:05:07 +0000 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:05:07 +0000 Wednesday December 23rdWe continued working on phone booth gluing the remaining battens in and pulling the back of the structure tight with the big clamps. Talita helped Margaret clean seven cabins while Ferdi helped John replace a rotten back panel on the booth. During a clumsy moment and with John watching Ferdi hit his index finger with the hammer. Smooth move John said nothing and Ferdi p http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Karamea/blog-463089.html Thursday December 17thWe realized that wersquove not given much detail about John and Margaret from the Karamea Holiday Park. Well John is about 64 years old and Margaret seems to be in her late 50rsquos. Theyrsquove run the entire park on their own for the last eighteen years. About three years ago John suffered a heart attack. Luckily he was at the medical centre when it happened otherw http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Karamea/blog-461330.html we are on our journey back to aukland to return our rental car it really has been abused we had to use the interior as an inprompt due dryer for our clothes one of the dryers at a hostle failed to dry our laundry at all after dumping 9 bucks into it Before we left willington we stopped off at the Zoo to check out all those crazie NZ animals that we thought we'd see not so tho there we http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/blog-421680.html You might remember a while back I mentioned that I'd joined a scheme called WWOOFing Willing Workers On Organic Farms. The scheme allows travellers to go and work on farms in exchange for food accomodation and farming experience. I joined up and managed to find a nice sounding dairy farm on the West Coast of the South Island in a little village called Whataroa. The job description was ''Milk http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Franz-Josef/blog-415035.html A continuationDay 5So when I left off last time I was in the Marlborough Sounds at Adamrsquos holiday home. The next day at his place we took out his boat and drove around the sounds for a good chunk of the day checking out various beaches and such. Sometimes wersquod just stop the boat and relax in the middle of the water. When we looked at the water surrounding the boat we ended up s http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/blog-398491.html Wow http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/blog-391922.html After leaving Cromwell we drove past Lakes Dunstan Hawea and Wanaka on our way to the Haast Pass. These are beautiful lakes. Paua decided that Lake Hawea was her favorite of all the ones we had so far seen. After passing the end of Lake Wanaka the road wound upwards through bush to the Haast Pass. It didn't feel so very high up due to the towering mountains which now surrounded us and as we http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/blog-382294.html Last time we travelled down the W Coast we stopped to see the Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers but it was too cloudy to see the mountains. This time it was too wet and cloudy to see the glaciers eitherWe compensated by going to watch a short film shot from helicopters showing amazing views of the mountains glaciers rivers and lakes.Stopped south of Haast on site at Okuru near the beach and the http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Haast/blog-379434.html Overnight at MurchisonFollow Buller River thru gorges etc down to Westport. No time for suspension bridge slide wire tripLunch picnic at Carters BeachDown coast to Greymouth Hokitika and then Lake Kaniere where Jim Margaret were waiting to meet us.The house is now finished apart from the odd cupboard door and a great place to stay. we were lucky that it was fine and next day went with th http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Hokitika/blog-379431.html After arriving into Picton via Marlborough Sounds we headed across to the West coast of the south island to begin our trip down south. The first stop was the Abel Tasman National Park which we knew would be different from most NZ national parks as this one was mainly beaches and coast line and not mountains and at first we thoughts it would be good but nothing special.....how wrong we were http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/blog-372265.html Hi blog readers I'm afraid I've been neglecting you in the last couple of weeks. So let's do a few excuses. First of all the internet access on the ship was very expensive and also very unreliable. Secondly I've not had the time or the inclination as there seems to have been a lot happening which I'll try and summarise.After leaving Tauranga we had a day at sea en route to Christchurch wi http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/blog-368976.html FaulknerBlunt Visit Part III and final chapter....must move on to next round of news and guests....January 8 12 2009Thursday Left Queenstown fairly early to head to Wanaka to Puzzling World and quick visit with the Ellis family again. Syd forgot her shoes on Tuesday and we needed to collect them. The weather was nice in Wanaka and we should have stayed there longer. It was 2 days of HE http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/blog-366703.html EN FRANCAIS PLUS BASMORE PHOTOS HERE So on day 5 enter the merry group Nicolette and her Dad Wim from the Netherlands Bryn and his Dad Graham and John all from the UK and sadly exit Josh. Suprisingly there are no Germans in the group while so far it had seemed to me that there were more Germans than Kiwis in New Zealand... That evening we camp in Okarito a big town by South Island West C http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/blog-364941.html I've made it through the west coast with only a smattering of rain This part of the country is amazingly beautiful with high mountains right along the coast line with a few glaciers thrown in there and lots of rivers and gorges I left the nelson area and headed south to Westport or as the locals say...Deadport. Basically sums it all up. But I did meet an interesting fellow while waiting for http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/blog-364476.html EN FRANCAIS PLUS BASMORE PHOTOS HEREHappiness it is said cannot be told. I find it to be a very accurate statement. I often have no idea how to write about my moments of purest happiness while moments of doubt and sadness inspire words more easilythough no one wants to read them understandably enough not even myself. So when happiness lasts 11 days straight the blank page lures at me... B http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/blog-364466.html Hi AllSean and I spent the last two days back country hiking up a ridge behind the farm here following it through to an alpine pond where we camped for the evening. The following day we followed the creek coming from the pond back to the farm. It took us 6 12 hrs up and 7 hours down following our compass to creat a path. Sean the goat had a blast running straight up and around the ridges wh http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/blog-363661.html Hey AllSean and I are staying on a farm just south of Ahaura now. If you're looking at a map it is about an hours drive east of Gremouth along the West Coast on the South Island. We're loving our time here so far. We've had today off where we follow Erin Pav and family to the Safety Creek swimming hole just off of their property. It was pretty refreshing jumping into fairly cold water Gorgeo http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/blog-362244.html Packings going well new 100l kitbag is not just big I think I could sleep in it. http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Fox-Glacier/blog-361832.html HelloFrom the glaciers in the West we made our way up the moody Coast which changed from thick cloud to bright sunshine in the space of a few minutes The rugged coastline is almost desolate not many tourists venture over this way and only 1 of the population lives here so at times we began to feel like the only ones in New ZealandIt was a long windey drive but each new view of the rocky http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Punakiaki/blog-360185.html So after we made it to Karamea and stayed the night Niv and Danielle decided that because it was raining that they didn't want to go walk to see the Caves so we headed back to Westport. Kinda a dumb idea if you ask me and I wasn't very happy about it. Anyways we stayed at the place we had checked into because they let us switch our night and we ended up having a good time that night. We left early http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/West-Coast/Karamea/blog-357054.html