Blogs from Haast Pass, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 3

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Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Haast Pass March 21st 2008

... Haastin kylaan. Minulla oli oikein kaytossa makuuhuone, olohuone, vessa, suihku ja eteinen.... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Haast Pass March 5th 2008

Welcome to this month's packed edition featuring Wine, Whales, Kayaking,Glaciers and hot tubs! As you will have gathered, we are now in the South Island. It's the same country but feels subtlely different. It feels bigger, wilder and more un-tamed. Lots of big rivers, lakes, snow capped mountains and rugged coastlines. Our first port of call once off the ferry was Blenheim which was our base for undertaking the Marlborough Wine Trail - a tough assignment but someone has to do it. Travelled from cellar door to cellar door sampling Sauvignon Blancs, Rieslings and Cabernet sauvignons. Invested in a few bottles and enjoyed giving them the attention that they deserved. Decided to do some 'free camping' and headed out to the Nelson Lakes national park. Scenery was breathtaking but we had our first encounter with the ... read more
Thar she blows
Where's Tina #5
I am The Moon

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Haast Pass February 27th 2008

Christchurch to Haast Feb 20 - Feb 26 http://photoshare.shaw.ca/view/5373484260-1204085657-48715/53734 Cut and Paste this for Pictures The last entry had us eagerly waiting to see the Yellow eyed Penquins waddle up the beach in Oamaru. They offered a $69 each tour to see the Blue Penquins do the waddle but we opted to see the free guys. We drove out to the Bushy Beach, hoofed to a view point (at least 100 feet from the beach) and all gaped at 3 little penquins that had done the waddle a few hours earlier and were just sitting and preening. A little underwhelming!! Drove a short day and arrived in Dunedin. Another perfect little Scottish town complete with Castle. Ross and Bonnie did a train ride for the afternoon and Larry and I toured Cadburys plant (still don’t know ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Haast Pass December 31st 2007

On our way out of Wanaka, we went to Puzzling World. This place has two sections. The first is a section that has all sorts of visual illusions. This includes holograms, an Ames Illusion room (how you shoot a ‘giant’ and a ‘dwarf’ in the same room with regular actors), and a sliding floor room which really mucks up your balance by having a downward sloping room that is actually pointing upwards - demonstrated by people sliding all over the place, chairs rolling uphill etc. The second section is a 3D maze. You have to find four coloured stations in the maze. But not only do you have the regular maze, you have staircases that run in different directions to allow you to get to different parts of the maze. Very fun. We found all four ... read more
Puzzling World #2
Puzzling World #3
Puzzling World #4

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Haast Pass December 30th 2007

Hi guys! Hope you all had a great Christmas and thanks for drinking my allowance Heather H! Where do we start? So far NZ has been adventure, adventure, adventure! Okay taking it in order, we got back from the beautiful Bay of Islands to sunny Auckland and got taken out on a boat belonging to Quentin, a friend of Mike's around Auckland Harbour. I then drove the boat heading straight for Auckland Harbour bridge at high speed, the boat started bouncing just a touch and I was thrown into the drivers seat, I had been driving the boat standing up... hmmm. So Denise took over for a while and actually took us under the bridge with Quentin going "left a bit, left a bit, LEFT A BIT", and her yelling "you do know I can't even ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Haast Pass September 10th 2007

We spent one night in Wanaka but there wasn' t too much to do here unless you are a hardcore skier and the hostel wasn't all that nice. So we decided to drive up to the glaciers taking a few stops en route to admire the views of Mt. Aspiring National Park. The first stop actually ended up being a 4hr hike up a mountain - so we went tramping (as the kiwi's call it). This was both tiresome (over 1hr non-stop up hill) and rewarding as you can see from the photos. It was a fantastic day to do it - blue skies but not too much sun so we tramped up the mountain through forest then ended up walking along through snow in just a t-shirt! We also stopped to see a couple of ... read more
The view from the top!
The Swing Bridge
Blue Pools

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Haast Pass June 19th 2007

Tuesday morning we left our riverside hideout and continued southwards with the aim of getting to Queenstown by Friday, when their annual Winter Festival started. An early start made sure we saw the scenery at its best, with ferns still coated with frost, some beautiful areas of hanging mist and clouds of steam pouring off the obviously thermal Bruce Bay beach. We stopped at Ship Creek for breakfast, with the cloud really starting to fill in and it looked like the forecast was right for once and bad weather was on its way. As you travel south down the west coast road there comes a point where you can go no further, as you hit the great mountain ranges of fjordland and are forced inland. These ranges isolate most of the southwest corner of the south ... read more
Steaming beach at Bruce Bay
Early morning mist on Lake Paringa
Lake reflections

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Haast Pass May 23rd 2007

Today we made our way along the Haast Pass, on route seeing beautiful temperate rainforest vegetation, lakes and cute Fantail birds. Unfortunately there was heavy rain all day, but this made the waterfalls even more spectacular. We did a short walk of the Fantail Falls, Thunder Creek Falls, & Roaring Billy Falls. All equally impressive in their different styles and strength - we love waterfalls! There were numerous magnificent falls and fast flowing waters along the windy coastal roads. Then we stopped off at Pleasant Flat for a picnic, before reaching Haast visitor centre. After we went on to Jacksons Bay and Neils Beach, lots of mountains covered in abundant trees & fresh sea air. A similar appearance to Borneo, particularly due to the misty weather. Then we stayed overnight in a campsite in Haast. Nick ... read more
View from Bridge
Fantail Waterfall
Nk in Temperate Rainforest

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Haast Pass February 19th 2007

Left Franz J this morning and made our way through more stunning landscapes to reach Makaroa. The south Island scenary is much more dramatic than the north. It seems to be continuous moutain ranges with sparkling waters and water falls. On the drive we saw Fox Glacier, Thunder Creek Falls and Blue Water pools. We reached Makaora with time to swim in the pool. This place is great to stay at. We have our own teepee shaped hut which has 5 beds even though we asked for a twin! It is very cheap too and we are located between two moutain ranges just beyond Haast Pass so the view is wonderful. It has been nice to relax after being on the bus on such a hot day.... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Haast Pass January 27th 2007

It's a sad fact to admit but we're starting to hate our South Island road trip. Not because we're having to be couped up together 24/7 though because we've been getting on famously on the road. It's all down to trying to find free or affordable campsites which has been far more difficult than we were led to believe. Grrrr. Our day started badly with a 7.30am wake up by the manager of the Albert Town campsite, demanding our camp fees. I reluctantly paid up the $14 but it left a bad taste in my mouth as all we had done was use the toilet once each and park for the night. We were so angry at being woken up so early after our long day yesterday that we just packed up and got the hell ... read more
Giant Fingers
Squeeze!
Bear Squeeze




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