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Published: January 11th 2010
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New Zealand is such a beautiful country! All all the scenery I have seen so far is simply amazing. We arrived into Christchurch's tiny airport late Friday night and headed to base backpackers at Cathedral square. We had to catch the Kiwi Experience bus at 8am the next morning so sightseeing didn't really happen but from what I saw it seemed like a pleasant city and I found out that it Hagley park in the centre is the world's third largest central park behind that of New York and Vancouver. After dominating my $9 all you can eat breakfast buffet (I took that as a serious challenge) we got on our first Kiwi Experience bus. Similar to the Oz Experience bus, the drivers act as tour guides as well so you get to know loads of extra info about the country whilst travelling round which is good. We had only been on the road for 5 minutes and in the distance I saw a whole ridge of snow-capped mountains. Absolutely amazing and the very fact that I saw snow after the heat of the last 3 months was pretty exciting! The bus took us up from Christchurch at sea-level over the top of Lewis Pass at 1500m and you could tell we had gone up in Altitude because it was very cold. In winter the driver said this place will look like Narnia (and no surprise that it is called ('Lewis' Pass...) The Chronicles of Narnia were actually filmed here, and at Arthur's Pass. A tap running of the hills gave out the coldest water I've had in ages and I even contemplated the thought of wearing gloves! We arrived in the small town of Westport for the night. Settlers originally came to the area for gold mining but since the 1870s it has been all about coal (you could even see it on the side of the road) but all the mining is done under ground as the whole area is a designated national park. On day 2 the weather had taken a turn for the worse as heavy rain and super strong gust of winds battered the bus. We headed down to Cape Foulwind (I can tell where it got its name from!) and saw one of the country's largest seal colonies (these seals were a lot more vocal than the ones I saw in South Africa). We continued the drive through the Paparoa National Park and headed along the South Island's West Coast (apparently voted one of the world's top 10 scenic drives) and I can understand why. despite the bad weather, the views were stunning and the ocean was rough and pounding against the beaches. After stopping off at Greymouth for supplies (namely food and a cheap coat) the bus arrived at Lake Mahinapua. The hostel owner Les cooked up up a massive meal including dear steak and stew. this morning I went on a short run and went down to the lake and the beach. The sea was still rough and there was so much drift wood lying all across the beach. The surf look very tempting but extremely dangerous (and probably cold) at the same time. The lake was beautiful. i got there at 8am and the water was perfectly still and the tress, hill and snow-capped mountains were reflected on the water. I didn't have the camera on me (but with it's broken zoom it would have been fairly difficult to get a good picture and do the scene justice) so it will be once of the moments I can remember myself. It truly was amazing and confirmed my belief that this really is a stunning country. The reflections on the lakes out here are so good because (I believe...according to the guide) muddy sediment runs down off the hills and mountains into the lakes making them darker, thus creating a better reflective quality on the water. It does make for truly picture perfect scenes. The drive today took us through an area where the white crane (now protected species) lives. A few years ago their population went down to just two birds but now it is back up to around 50 as they have stopped being culled (for their feathers to make hats). I have now arrived in Franz Josef in the Westland Tai Poutini National Park which encompasses both the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers. Tomorrow I am off on a full day hike up the glacier which will include up to 6 hours ice time and the use of crampons (for the bottom of your shows to grip the ice) and climbing gear. An interesting point to note as well is that these glaciers are the only ones in this latitude in the world that can exist at such a low altitude (only 20ish meters above sea level). Will update after the trip up the ice! P.s I have just come out of a 40 degrees hot tub that looks up to the glacier and the snow covered mountains. Perfect!
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