Blogs from Makarora, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

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Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Makarora March 22nd 2011

Again we had a small villaged stop in a place called Makarora and yes all I did was have some drinks in the bar. They did put on Karaoke, but due to my awful singing voice I just watched and played some free pool. The other thing is that my voice has taken a battering due to the drink and I think I had a small cold at the time the drinking started so it just hasn't recovered.... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Makarora November 2nd 2010

Left Franz Josef still shrouded in cloud on Monday morning and headed down the west coast stopping at Lake Matheson (aka mirror lake) but unfortunately Mt Cook was also hidden by clouds & there was too much breeze for the lake to act as a mirror. We then got a sneaky stop to admire Fox Glacier, smaller than Franz Josef but still impressive. This was sneaky as apparently they’re not meant to take the bus there! We then paused to admire the view at Knights Point and to walk over one of the road bridges up the Haast valley with equally awe inspiring views. The Thunder Creek Falls were also admired as were the blue pools. As soon as we left the west coast we also left the clouds behind which was good. We arrived at ... read more
Blue Pools reflections
Fox Glacier
Haast Pass

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Makarora April 13th 2010

I AM SO SORE!!!!! My body has never hurt this much in my entire life!!! It hurts to sit down, hurts to stand up, hurts to walk. WOW! It’s pouring rain outside which is does 2 out of every 3 days here in Franz Josef. We were meant to stop at Lake Matheson on our way today but no go with the rain. Lake Matheson is also known as Mirror Lake and the mountains reflect in the lake like a mirror but when it rains it’s not so much a mirror anymore. Pictures We stopped at a couple of waterfalls but it was raining so hard I didn’t get any good pictures. Our bus got stuck for a while as there was an accident up ahead of us. So we watched The World’s Fastest Indian. It’s ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Makarora March 10th 2009

In March, we headed off on a 2-week holiday of NZ’s South Island. We used a 'hop on hop off' bus service called Stray Backpacker Bus NZ to get around, and our big highlights were swimming with dolphins, catching our own fish for dinner and climbing a glacier. Stops 4 to 6 : West Coast of the South Island; Brewery and glacier, nature and nurture (N) The west coast of New Zealand is known for its raw natural beauty: towering mountains, rugged rainforests, magnificent glaciers and beautiful beaches. It is not densely populated: 27,000 people live in Blenheim town, but only 30,000 along the entire 1000km west coast! Before we left Abel Tasman National Park we went for a morning walk, looked out to sea for a while and saw geese flying overhead. Driving through the ... read more
Hawk's Crag
Pancake Rocks, Punakaiki
All Nations Pub, Barrytown

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Makarora January 20th 2009

Hey everyone!! This one is going to have to be super duper quick because i really need to get to the airport soon! The next day we left Franz Josef and headed towards Makarora where we were to stay the night! On the way we stopped off a few interesting places for once.... the Fox Glacier, the mirror lake near Mt Cook and then a beautiful clear, but freezing river, where the brave ones had a swim! The drive wasnt pleasant though as for the second or third day the airconditioning wasnt working and it was soooo hot!! Although that made us appreciate our water stops a lot more.... although a couple of days earlier, i cant remember when and where, we ended up swimming in a river with lots of animal deposits (if you know ... read more
Fox Glacier!
Crossing scary shaking bridge to river!
Me at Fox Glacier!

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Makarora December 12th 2008

Fox Glacier to Makarora Thursday 11th December 2008 NOTE: Have just realised that I have put the dates as “November’ instead of “December’ on the last two blogs so need to edit them if possible. Sorry for any confusion! It’s an age thing! We woke up this morning to mist and rain and it was impossible to see either Fox Glacier or Mounts Cook and Tasman beyond. Access to the glacier was closed due to the big landslide so we decided to “hit the road”, not literally of course, we leave that to the poor possum, colloquially called “Road Pizza”. The possum, once considered to be an endearing creature, is now classed as a menace, due to over-breeding and a taste for bird’s eggs. Their numbers are so huge (and road sense so poor) that throughout ... read more
Whoops! Landslide!
Highway blocked
Rushing Billy Falls

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Makarora July 25th 2007

heute, nach fast 3 wochen weg von zuhause, war der besch.... tag.ist gott sei dank nicht so, dass ich nach hause will, aber vielleicht ihr hierher??? ich vermisse leute, von denen ich weiss, dass sie mich moegen, nicht aus zwang oder hoeflichkeit mit mir zeit verbringen und mit denen ich v.a. spass habe. die 3 aus meinem zimmer sind nett, keine frage, aber so richtig ausgelassen spass hab ich mit denen auch nicht. ich mein ist ja auch schwer, so von jetzt auf gleich auch noch leute kennen zu lernen, mit denen man sich super versteht, den selben humor hat, und das dann auch noch auf englisch!!! morgens losgefahren, stoppten wir noch an einem zweiten gletscher, dem fox glacier zum fotos machen. einfach irre, auch dieser wieder.weiterfahrt-- stop an einem wasserfall-- stop fuer lunch in haast, ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Makarora March 15th 2007

When we left Franz Josef on the wednesday morning the weather was if possible even worse than the day we'd arrived, it was feezing and the rain was really coming down. It was so cold that it was snowing up at the top of the mountains rather than raining so at least we did wake up to snow capped mountains surrounding the whole town, which made it look lovely even if the weather was awful. We made a quick stop at the other glacier New Zealand has which is not far from Franz Josef, Fox Glacier but we didn't stay long as the weather was just getting worse and we were on a new bus which had the opposite problem of our North Island bus - rather than the a/c not working the heat wasn't ... read more
Waterfalls somewhere in the mountains between Haast and Makarora
Another waterfall
The Blue Pools....the water was even colder than it looks




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