We made it to the South Island!

---

Hello Folks
We have just had a bit of a major road trip from up near Nelson 7 hours to the Fox Glacier so now we are in a pretty mountainous patch!
So what have we done for the last few days?
Well we got up bright and early to catch the ferry over from Wellington to Picton having to wait an hour in a queue, as i guess is usual on big ferrys, we took the chance to write some more postcards ( yep they might be winging their way to you...) and maybe do something sophisiticated like a wordsearch or two. Anyway we piled onto the ferry and secured a few seats for the three and a half hour journey across the Malborough Sounds. Did a bit of book reading, photo faffing, lunch eating and looking at the beautiful scenery on the way into Picton. Its lots of long spits of tall land or the odd island, but they are so tall and ALL covered in trees - there are so many trees in New Zealand!

Anyway back on dry land we headed over to the Able Tasman National Park, taking the scenic road round to Nelson which of course is very very bendy but has lots of lovely view points and arrived early evening. We had booked the Kayak tour like Jinx mentioned and looking at the forecast in the hostel the weather was set to be good - heavy rain showers all day :os

We were woken up early by the sound of rain on the roof of the bunkhouse we were staying in - we were quite near the roof as all sleeping on the top bunks, quite a way up the ladder! We drove in the rain round to the next bay where were would be going kayaking from. We got a water taxi (boat!) up the coast where we met some more people who had been staying in a hut by the beach (inaccessable by road so they must have got a water taxi there/walked from another bay the previous day - there are loads of bays like this in the National Park). Once briefed on how to kayak and escape if we capsized etc we set off for a couple of rocks home to a seal sanctuary. There were a fair few of seals swimming around the rocks and some quite small baby ones sitting safely on the rocks. Jinx tried to take a few pictures of the seals and also us kayaking in the rain so will try and put some up at some point!

We carried on round to the next bay were we abandoned ship and went to have lunch after building a shelter to eat under (yep still raining heavily - and for possibly the first time we were a bit chilly, not surprising when you are soaked to the skin though). The lunch was included in the trip and definately helped warm us up a bit along with a needed cup of tea! Back in the kayaks and we went round the coast back to where we had set off from, venturing through lagoons and round the rocky islands. We also took a detour up the river as it was so high from up the rain, though it seemed to get lower as the rain eased a little as when we tried to paddle back downstream we got a little stuck! Messing around a bit on the way back - throwing sponges at other kayaks etc we eventually made it back to the bay and caught the water taxi back. The shower at the hostel was definately needed - so nice and warm, though all the water ment my fingers didnt stop being wrinkly for a while!

The next day we headed back to Nelson for the day, just wanted to have a look around before driving south the next day. Nelson is all quite compact so it was easy enough to wander round for a while. We stopped in a nice little hostel called the Green Monkey owned by an english guy and his new zeland partner - so cosy and not too far from the centre. We went through the centre, finding lunch in a bakery - sandwiches are always good from bakeries here and looking at the Jewellers where THE RING in the Lord of the Rings film was mde and visiting a brilliant little bead shop (Jess you would have loved it). We had given in to the call of the cinema and went to watch Hes just not that into you before going to a little italian restaurant for tea ($15 for pizza and a drink = about 6 pounds - not bad!). Back at the hostel we were glad of the fire, yep in the middle of summer, and made use of the free wireless internet by booking some more hostels.

We set off from Nelson at 9am this morning on our roadtrip and we arrived at 6pm this evening at Fox Glacier, 500kms total along sometimes winding roads, and various single lane bridges - even single lane bridges for cars/trains - not both at the same time as the cars drive along the train tracks. We stopped off at the tourist trap that is Pancake Rocks for lunch, same as all the coaches which were all parked up next to the 2 cafes, craft shop and information centre. It was worth it though, made for a good halfway point and the rocks really were worth a look looking like stacks of scotch pancakes with a massive surge pool as well which had been undercut (more pictures later). We also stopped at Fox Glacier and took the 20 minute round trip up a little hill infront of the terminal morraine of the glacier to a viewpoint with plenty of informative boards. The glacier is so easy to get to, up a 4km track which you can drive up then you can take numerous walks to view it, get closer or if with a guide get onto it. We took a few pictures and carried on the last 20kms to our hostel for the next 2 nights.

Fox Glacier is only a small town so it wasnt hard to find the hostel. Now we have to get ready for tomorrow - a Helihike onto the Glacier itself with 2 hours ice time with a helicopter landing on the ice. Also we want to walk around Lake Mattison (not sure thats spelt right). Not much time now but will write more tomorrow.
Lots of love Katie, Izzy and Jinx xx

---