Ice Ice Baby - North Island to South Island

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Sat 24th Nov- Fri 30th Nov

Sat - Drove on to Palmerston North to visit Alison’s relatives for the weekend, Judy and Gregor, who were very hospitable and made us feel extremely welcome.
- Visited the wind farm nearby and were awed by the size and noise of the windmills, drove through an impressive gorge and went to see the historic building at Massey university where Judy and Gregor met.
- Superb roast dinner of New Zealand lamb with roast kumara and pumpkin and lovely lunch the next day.
- Saw some photos of Alison’s ancestors that her Great-Uncle Bill had got together, including one of her great-great-great (-great?) grandmother who was born in the 1790s. Very cool.
- Was great to sleep in a proper bed after weeks on the boards of the camper van!

Sun - Mid afternoon drove on towards Wellington and our campsite at Lower Hutt via some fresh strawberry growers where we bought fresh fruit. Along the way we hit traffic. This was most unusual as we had become not used to this in NZ so we stopped at nearby Otaki beach to enjoy the sunshine and chill for a bit hoping the traffic would clear, which it did. The beach was covered in huge bits of driftwood from New Zealand’s forests, which looked like monumental sculptures.

Mon - In Wellington we walked past Parliament, where the end building looks like a beehive. Then we took the cable car up the hillside, this is over 100 years old and was built to link the residents at the top of the hillside to the centre of Wellington. At the top we walked round the cable car museum telling us the history. We then walked back down thru the Botanic Gardens, stopping at the Peace Garden celebrating NZ’s non-nuclear policy and their link with Japan on this. Then we looked at the Rose Garden before we then continued back to the city centre.
- Chris got very excited by the posters everywhere advertising the LA Galaxy vs Wellington match that was taking place later that week - but then was gutted when he realised it was taking place after we’d left for the South Island and he’d miss David Beckham.

Tues - visited the large Te Papa museum, it had an interesting exhibit on earthquakes including a recreated living room where you could experience what being in an earthquake was like - wasn’t quite as scary as the volcano eruption in Auckland museum but I wouldn’t fancy being in one. There were also loads of interesting exhibits on Maori culture and NZ ecology.
- As Alison is a bridesmaid at Ian and Paula’s wedding when we get back, in the evening we took the opportunity to meet up with Ian’s best men, he has 3 but we were only able to meet Matt and Alex. Andrew (aka Trowel) had man flu so hope he recovers ok in time for Paula and Ian’s wedding in Jan. Matt and Alex were both cool and we had a thoroughly jolly evening out in a few pubs and jazz bars and came away with some great advice from Alex about what to see in the South Island.

Weds - it was time to leave the North Island and catch the ferry to Picton on the South Island.
- After a pleasant 3 hr ferry journey, we then drove on for a couple hours along the coast and through the countryside, via Nelson, to stay overnight at Kaiteriteri.

Thurs - Sea kayaked the day in Abel Tasman National Parks, seeing New Zealand Fur Seals (which are actually Sea Lions) along the way, cool! At one point we joined all the canoes in the group together to make a raft and the guide organized a sail using paddles as masts and we sailed to the beach where we had lunch. The canoes were steered by a rudder controlled by foot peddles. Alison liked steering (must be a control thing) but Chris found it too annoying and kept forgetting to steer. Probably too much like multitasking! Good news is we survived sharing a canoe without any major arguments, unlike the time we tried sharing a canoe in Cornwall.
- In the evening we stayed at a hostel in the Abel Tasman national park, except this time it was on a boat - the Aquapack. This was really cool and we had a superb evening chatting away to other people staying there, in particular swapping NZ stories with a Belgium and Danish couple and getting the low-down from locals that were redecorating Dept of Conservation buildings nearby in the national park.
- The dorm was an experience - we were in a double bed on the top bunk in a 9m by 3m room shared by 7 people and the ceiling was so low we couldn’t sit up. We slept like logs though.
- Also not forgetting the person who ran the boat, where we got to talk dive talk, awesome stuff. He recently won a dive competition fishing for crayfish, and broke most of the scuba rules about what you’re not supposed to do.

Fri - we had rain for the first time in 10 days after it being sunny most of that time. Still it made the 3 ½ hour walk back to the entrance of the park cooler (where our campervan was parked) but did spoil what would have been impressive vistas.
- Saw a kingfisher but had to agree with one of the Dutch guys who stayed on the boat that nowhere has such colourful Kingfishers as Europe.
- Also had our first encounters with the painful NZ South Island sandflies, which drew blood as we tried to enjoy the isolated Abel Tasman beaches.
- In the afternoon we drove on to Westport at the top of the West Coast to set ourselves up for the next day. We camped at a picnic area by the side of a river just off of State Highway 6, which reminded us of The Forgotten World Highway with its winding road, rainforest and steep gorges. This was one of the first times we saw the white pebble banks and beaches of the South Island rivers.
- Tried to find the nearby seal colony and failed, but Chris did a very impressive three point turn in the campervan on a narrow spit by a lighthouse

Sat 31st Nov - Friday 5th Dec

Sat - We finally saw the seal colony where we bumped into the Dutch couple who were staying on the boat when we did (the bloke who Alison discussed kingfishers with). There were loads of seals, including a couple of quite young ones.
- Saw Weta’s for the first time - a NZ indigenous bird that, like the Kiwi and the now extinct Moa, has no wings. It has a beak and claws like a chicken and scratches around in the ground for food, but its colouring resembles a female mallard duck. Sone of the Wetas had chicks, which was really cool.
- We then zoomed across over 200k Easwards across NZ towards Hamner Springs. The journey consisted of some very straight roads, which took a lot of concentration because they became so monotonous after a while. We saw some spectacular scenery, including plains covered in purple lupins. They are not supposed to be there, being another European import, but they do look beautiful despite probably being an ecological nightmare.
- The campsite at Hamner Springs was probably our favourite commercial campsite in the whole of NZ, with great facilities and surrounded by countryside with baaing sheep, full of birds (unfortunately also European imports - chaffinches, thrushes, sparrows, blackbirds - there are more than you see at home but they compete with native species for food and consequently have contributed to their decline).

Sun - we played mini golf where it was my turn to me the loser with a capital L on my forehead as Ali thrashed me, I had a mare, blurry eyes was my poor excuse.
- Then Quad Biking, awesome but muddy stuff, across muddy rivers, up and down a hillside with a superb view of the impressive mountain range around Hamner Springs. Unfortunately Ali had a horrific quad bike incident, with the bike turning over nearly on top of her and bashing and cutting her knee. She has now retired from adventure terrain vehicle activities (after her third incident this year) before she causes herself any serious damage.
- A bit of ice for Ali’s knee and then off to the thermal spas for the evening to further soothe her sore knee. Again we go all weightless and light headed, superb stuff.

Mon - We’re on the move again to cut back across the South Island to the west stopping along the way at Arthur’s Pass.
- Saw spectacular scenery with huge mountains and colourful plains between them.
- It was still sunny late afternoon so we took the opportunity to do a short walk to see the Devil’s Waterfall, well worth it - it was stunning and we saw rainbows again, cool stuff.
- We also saw Keas, NZ’s unique mountain parrot. They are huge, endangered and have a reputation for taking the rubber off cars, so we were relieved to come back and find the van in one piece.

Tues - We parked up for the night by Mt Rolleston so we had a superb view of it over dinner. We woke up next morning to find it completely engulfed in cloud as if it was never there. This spoiled our plans to go on a longer walk in the forest area, where it is known for superb camera snaps, as we wouldn’t be seeing anything that morning. So we drove back down to do another short walk to the Bridal Veil waterfalls, this was naff to say the least and we shouldn’t have bothered.
- We stopped at Otira gorge to look at the road hanging off the side of the mountain on big concrete struts- a superb feat of engineering that had created a vital connection between the East and West coasts.
- We then drove on to the West Coast, stopping for lunch at the Strong Mine Memorial (for the miners who lost their lives in the Strong Mines). To the left we overlooked the sea where the sun was shining away but to the right it was still cloudy over the landscape.
- We were amused to see a road sign warning about penguins crossing the road.
- After lunch we drove shortly onto Punakaiki to see the Pancake rocks. These are piles of rocks that look like stacks of pancakes. Also there was the Surge Pool, waves surging against the walls of an enclosed area and the Blowhole where waves were being sprayed upwards at a high distance. All good stuff to watch!!
- We then drove back down the West Coast, retracing our steps to Greymouth and stopping the other side at South Beach, which set us up for the next day. After a soak in the campsite hot (non-thermal) spa (it’s not the same without sulphur), we went to the beach to watch the sunset.

Weds - in the morning we went to Shanty Town, a replica of a 19th century gold mining town where we went on a steam train, had a go at gold panning and wandered round the town. There were:
- a barbers, this was quite a sociable place to go to even if you didn’t want a hair cut or a shave. We learnt safety razors didn’t originally take off for the first 20 years as they were considered unmanly, better to be cut instead by the cuthroat razors! The person running the barbers also ran the dentist next door plus the chemist nearby, jack of all trades.
- a hospital, which still wasn’t nice to walk around, a fire station, a jail that had a cartoon of some of NZ’s most notorious murderers back in those days, they were quite nasty to say the least.
- a grand two storey house, stables. A church that had been transported for the second time board by board from another location.
- last was the China Town which really was a shanty town compared to the European part of town, the buildings were more like wooden huts. This was complete with its own opium den.
- In the afternoon we drove onto Hokitika - well known for its arts and crafts, in particular jade. On the way we went over a couple of crazy bridges that carried both trains and the road - all on the same one lane stretch. Freaky stuff!
- Then late afternoon continued on to Franz Joseph.

Thurs - 6hr ice hike up the Franz Jospeh glacier, one of just 3 advancing glaciers in the world, it was just amazing.
- Every 250 yrs earthquake, overdue by 50 years, no warning when booking or at campsite, great!!!
- The Mobil petrol station in town is across 2 tectronic plates, nice planning there!
- 40 min walk to glacier
- Deceptively looks small but once on it we soon appreciated just how big it really is.
- Clambered around for 4 hrs, having lunch overlooking the plains the below with the sun shining down, cool!!
- The compacted ice was a strong sky blue colour in many places when seen close up. We walked through huge cracks in the ice that were only as wide as us and incredibly tall.
- The steps the guides cut out of the ice have to be re- cut every few minutes because the sun and ice movement continually changes them
- One of our guides was still quite new and had to undergo an initiation that involved him diving into a pool of freezing cold water up on the glacier - sensibly he’d waited until the sun was out
- Was amazing to see rainforest and huge compacted ice side-by-side
- Was named Franz Josef glacier when it was first seen by Haast because it reminded him of the emperor Franz Josef’s long flowing white beard.
- Chris, coming out in sympathy with Alison’s dodgy knee, fell over his own two feet and badly cut his shins.

Fri - In the morning chilled out at the serene and tranquil Lake Matheson near the Fox glacier, where you could see the reflection of this glacier as well as Mt Cook and Mt Tasman in the lake.
- Bought some Fox’s glacier mints
- In the afternoon continued chilling out at Gillespe Beach, where we more or less had the beach to ourselves. It was paradise and so we stayed there the night.
- The 20k drive to this beach was along an unfinished road with rainforest surroundings, making us think of South America (not that we’ve been there yet). There was a huge dust cloud behind the van, covering everything inside and outside the van in a fine layer of dirt. We had to drive incredibly slowly and at times, when turning corners, the wheels slipped and we had to ride it to then straighten up to continue.
- We parked in the small DOC car park/camping area, which had a view of the mountains one side (including Mts Cook & Tasman) and the beach the other side. There were half a dozen cars parked but we couldn’t see people on the beach, it’s that secluded. The covered in multicoloured pebbles, many of which have shiny minerals in them (possible gold - there’s a derelict goldmine nearby), and is covered in the most amazing driftwood, including whole tree trunks and tree stumps. It’s one of the most amazing beaches we’ve ever been to.

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