South Island

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Pics are coming, we downloaded them to DVD and now can't find an internet cafe with a DVD drive... give us a few days we will find one....

SOUTH ISLAND
The ferry crossing was a little blustery and the first time we have had to wrap up in warm weather gear since our arrival in NZ.

On our last night on the North Island P got speaking to a local who gave us a bit of a tip for our journey. As you get off the ferry take a right at the first roundabout and you will have a great view over the marlborough sounds.....he was right, the views were fantastic...lots of little bays and very picturesque.

This route took us west from Picton (where the ferry landed) to Havelock (the home of the green lip mussel) where we stopped for a little lunch of - you guessed it green lipped mussels...Yum

After a further 2-3 hours driving along very windy roads, some of which was in fog, we spent the first night at French's Pass where P caught his first fish (worth eating) and boy was it a beaut! 2 nice sized Blue Cod. We had the first one that night for dinner, the second is filletted and in the fridge...

French's Pass was a great spot - quiet and tranquil (except for the school trip....) hoped to do a dolphin watching trip but think the guy was out with the kids as nowhere to be seen....Not a problem though, as it was a great find, and the drive back was beautiful.

A drive the next day took us to Nelson and Motueka, which is just south of the Abel Tasman National Park. We have booked to go sailing along the coast the length of the park tommorrow....


Penultimate day in NZ.....

Well, the sailing trip was a bit of a washout - not a lot of wind, and lots of drizzle. A shame as we were looking forward to sunbathing on deck. It was a nice journey though - we sailed up the coast to see the national park from the sea - with a brief stop at a small island to see seals. Met a few nice people too, so not a bad day.

We drove south the following day and stopped at the Buller gorge, at the longest swingbridge in NZ, which we had to cross - see pics. Was a little wobbly, and didn't feel much like Indiana Jones....Afterwards we drove to the west coast and stopped off at The Pancake Rocks en-route, which are pretty impressive. it was a blustery day too, so made for good viewing.

We camped in Greymouth and the next day had an early start when we went caving - involved sexy wetsuits with thermals underneath (!) but when everyone is dressed the same its not too bad - sorry no pics of that! Was a fun trip, and managed to climb through small holes in the rocks I never thought P's shoulders would get through....The glowworms on the ceiling of the cave were impressive too.

We had a compulsory stop at Franz Josef glacier (had to be done for our friend of very similar name) and it was impressive, but not in comparison to Perito Moreno in Argentina. Will let you decide from the photos. Was different though, as we could walk very close to the face of the glacier here, as it comes out at a river amongst the rainforest, where Perito Moreno was a freezing cold lake. A good walk. We skirted past Fox glacier and had a long drive to Wanaka where we spent the night. It is a really nice town next to a lake, could have stayed longer, but Queenstown was our next destination. We spent a couple of days there as met up with a friend who we travelled with in Bolivia - Carrie. Was great to meet up again and will catch up back in the UK when she returns in September.

Queenstown is in another beautiful area - The Remarkables mountain range is just that, and the setting for some of The Lord of the Rings. We took a gondola up above the town, and had great views - missed out on the paragliding as the wind changed...will try and do that another time.

From QT we drove to Fjordland in the south-west early in the morning. It was actually frosty - something we hadn't seen since our last morning in the UK back in November. We took a cruise on Doubtful Sound which was fantastic - a really beautiful place. They call it the 'Sound of silence' and it was. A 40km long stretch of water carved out by glaciers, extending to the Tasman sea. A great trip.

The next stop on our travels was Dunedin - however we arrived late afternnon the Thursday before easter and everything was closing - so had a beer instead of the sightseeing. We went to the only castle in NZ, and altough it was nice, not very castle like. The history is just not long enough here in comparison to England. We didn't see much of the city...had enough of those, so headed into the country.

NZ seems to shut down over the Easter weekend...it is actually compulsory for shops to stay closed and no alcohol to be served on Good Friday...hence no pubs were open either!!! Craziness....Most things are even closed on Saturday, which is even weirder....

We have had some good road journies along the way, its been worth having the campervan despite its faults. Has meant we can stop anywhere we like, and camp at lots of places for free, when we don't feel like campervan parks.

We are now in Christchurch - our last stop in NZ. The weather is decidedly autumnal and are looking forward to the sunshine of Australia from Monday on. We hope to get a campervan there too - more travels on the road await....

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