Advertisement
Published: March 1st 2012
Edit Blog Post
We had some great time since the last entry. The weather got worse though, however we expected it so no disappointment there..
We tend to arrive somewhere and find some great walks which are usually free. New ZealandTourism is trying to make so much money on tourists, it is unbelievable. One of the walks was a walk round Punakaiki and Pororari River. You can hire a kayak there as well. The look of the rocks and mirror-like river is just beautiful. We went for a swim naked as well before all the tourists could see us!
I really liked town called Hokitika, shame it was raining all day as we ended up in the library. Hokitika is known for a green stone called Jade
http://www.jadecountry.co.nz/ It is a beautiful stone but expensive one!
We headed towards Franz Jozef Glacier and Fox Glacier. We were kind of disappointed. First, because of the weather but we were lucky, as always, we managed to see the glaciers in the morning but the place was just overcrowded with tourists and we didn't get that near as I expected. The walk was way too easy too. Fox Glacier is the better one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Glacier It melts quickly!
We saw Lake Matheson and Lucas hoped he can have a swim in it, however that walk & lake is for pensioners = the best thing about it is the view of the alps and glaciers 😊
We were looking forward to a 2 day walk to hot pools (Copland Track). We packed and were ready. The bad thing was that it was thundering and raining all night (I actually thought we will die, the van was going from side to side and thunder and lightning just above our heads all night, so I didn't sleep - God I was scared!). Well as it was raining in the morning...still we decided to leave it as there was about 16 crossings of river, some of them without a bridge which could be slightly dangerous...so I had a bath in the river in about 13 degrees Celsius instead haha. I am getting harder!
We had couple of days of deep depresion as there was nothing to do or see (apparently we missed the most beautiful part of South Island - the ALPS!) We carried on driving and stopped at couple of falls including Roaring Billy Falls.
We bought a Whitebait
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitebait which is this weird looking fish, you fry it with an egg and do like a pancake with bread. They are regarded as delicacy. It tastes good but apparently there isn't a season for them and I felt a little dodgy after eating them...hmm
When we arrived in Wanaka we fell in love. This place is pretty amazing as it isn't as busy as other towns and it is surrounded by mountains! Everywhere you look. The weather also got better so our spirits lifted. We also met a Czech couple, Lenka and Martin and decided to join them in a hike to Roys Peak (1578m) which is a 6 hour hike. We relaxed near the lake Wanaka and had a swim in it. Another walk (the same day!) was to Diamond Lake Rocky Hill which is from the Lord of the Rings. As I haven't seen it, I cannot tell you which part 😊
We set off to hike towards Rob Roy Glacier which was cool however very crowdy in the afternoon again. Luckily we are getting up at 7am 😊
We were a little disappointed with Queenstown which is actually very
small but busy. We only visited the Queenstown Gardens with the view of mountains in the area including the Remarkables.
We ended up in Te Anau and hung around the lakes in the area. Lucas did lots of fishing. It felt special at the lake Manapouri and Manauwai. One of the best walks we have done was Eldwig Peak which was quite difficult and long walk however very rewarding. The sky was clear and we saw the mountains of Fiordland including Doubtful and Milford Sound.
It has been raining and cold since Wednesday. We saw Hector dolphins
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector's_dolphin swimming around the shore, stopped at the Gemstone Beach where we collected lots of gemstones in heavy rain! They are so beautiful that I will have to try to take them back to Europe. Monkey Island is a place from where to view whales however I was glad I can see a meter in front of me so we didn't even try...
In Cosy Nook we were invited for a cup of tea from a guy who writes books. We stopped in Colac Bay which is a surfer's place but you can meet a shark in there as well
so we refused to swim in there. There are lots of shags nesting round the beach. We stayed in Riverton.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.143s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 12; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0518s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb