Blogs from West Coast, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 20

ANZAC Day - 25 April - is one of New Zealand's most important national occasions. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War (in Gallipoli). The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they soon took in that name endures to this day. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The day is a national holiday marked with commemorations throughout New Zealand and Reefton is no exception. There are in fact two ceremonies in town. One at the crack of dawn and another community ceremony at 10:00 in the morning. We attended the latter. There was a short parade which lasted from 10:00 to 10:03 (Adrianne and Josh marched in the parade - Avery was ... read more

The journey from Wanaka to the Glaciers involves a very long drive through the rainforest. After a while it reaches the west coast and follows it more or less until reaching the glaciers half way up the north island. The drive is interesting as you get to see lots of the rain forest, and the road itself is varied in that there are long straight stretches, very very bendy mountainous stretches and interesting items such as the single lane bridges which are shared with the railway line! You have to try and look along the line the other side to check no trains are coming before starting to cross. The waterfall in the pics was in the middle of the forest - I only spotted it because the road was higher at first and then ... read more

Into our final stretch back home we stopped at the Franz Joseph Glacier. The glacier is located on the West Coast of the South Island. It is unique in the fact that it descends from the Southern Alps to just 200 metres above sea level amidst the greenery and lushness of a temperate rainforest. The area surrounding the glacier is designated a World Heritage Site. We plan to spend a full day hiking up the glacier at some point, but the kids did not have the reserves to take on the climb this time. However, I talked everyone in to "stretching their legs" with a short walk to get a better look at the glacier. I sold it on the basis of a 30 minute walk, but it turned into a couple of hours. The weather ... read more

Regular followers of the blog will recall that last Monday, I took on but wisely did not finish the Blackpoint - Waitahu Valley track (it was late and recent rain had made a required river crossing a bit risky). The fact that I was not able to complete the circuit niggled at me all week. We have had 5 very fine days without any rain, so I determined to set out much earlier this time to conquer this trail. I left around noon but blew out two tires (or tyres) in a row. It turned out that the tire had a cut in the sidewall and needed to be replaced together with a new tube. The Reefton sports shop was able to sell me a replacement and I hit the road just after 1:00. I climbed ... read more

We arrived a bit earlier in Karamea then expected so the man who was in charge of the place had gone away for the weekend to Christchurch. I called to say we where coming and he informed us that we had to bring our own food... that is very unusual for a woofing place and something I feel they really have to write in the woof book. The journey down had been more expensive then we had thought earlier so we really wanted to stay out of hostels as much as we could so the news about food was not to welcomed. We had read about Rongo Backpackers in the woofing book and it sounded like a very good place. But things are never as you expect them to be and for us it was ... read more