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Published: April 19th 2007
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Mirror mirror on the wing....
Driving in this country can sometimes be distracting with views like this in your mirrors! Our New Zealand Adventure started with some van shopping in Christchurch. In between van hunting we wandered round Christchurch (nice place!) and managed to catch a Crusaders rugby match. After 2 days we managed to buy a 20 year old van from 2 hippies which was in our price range (less than 600 pounds!). After removing all the shells flowers and feathers they had collected, we stocked up and headed south. Check out the pictures of the van which we've named Chip, it has loads of character and looks like a worried chipmunk from the front!
First we made our way inland to see lake Tekapo, which has the most photographed church in NZ on its shore. (we didn't take a photo of it!) Next we wandered over to Mt Cook national park, which unfortunately due to the weather conditions, was not at its spectacular best. we did go for a walk, but didn't hang around for long.
From Mt Cook, we headed to the coast and stopped off at Omaru which is famous for it's penguin colonies. There are a whole host of guided tours you can pay for, but we decided we'd have a look ourselves
at a place called Shag point. First we wandered past the hundreds of basking seals towards the beach hide where you 'might if you're lucky' spot a yellow eyed penguin (one of the worlds rarest). While walking round a small sand dune we came face to face with one of these apparently shy and reclusive animals, however, it looked less scared than us and just waddled on by, after posing for a few photographs of course!
On our way south around a rugged coastal area called the Catlins we came across a few more yellow eyed penguins as well as loads more seals and even a beach where we were out numbered 2 to 1 by sea lions! As you can see from the pictures Nugget point was particularly good, with it's dramatic views and abundant wildlife.
Quickly passing through the horible Invercargil, we made our way towards the Fiordland the highlight of which for us, was most definitely Milford Sound. This Fiord is accessed by one of the most dramatic 130Km roads you'll ever drive on! We arrived early (before the hundreds of tour busses decended) and took an early morning boat trip out through the sound
to the Tasman sea. This was quality, and the pictures will never do it any justice! After our early morning boat trip through the Sound (including seal spotting) we walked part of the Routeburn track to Key Summit, giving us some great views over the valleys.
Next stop was the ExTrEmE! capital of NZ, Queenstown! Unfortunately, Queenstown was not quite extreme enough for us, and we didn't get the chance to go white water rafting on the shotover river, due to a lack of water. Still, we managed to sqeeze in a bit of jet boating on the shotover jetboat. This was pretty cool. we retired to queenstown for the evening and enjoyed a few mugs of the local ales! NICE!
Not far from Queenstown is Wanaka, where we decided to go for a walk allong the Rob Roy track to Rob Roy Glacier. Unkown to us when setting out, this track starts at the end of a 20Km unsealed road. This wasn't much fun in our 21 year old van!......We made it in one piece, and have the photos to prove it too! The walk was well worth the effort.
Heading north over Hass Pass we
Elephant Rocks
As featured in the film the Chronicles of Narnia arrived at Fox Glacier and went on a guided walk (complete with crampons and trousers tucked into our socks) over the glacier. This was pretty cool (literally!) and quite exciting when the ice suddenly made a large cracking noise and shifted slightly when we were standing on the middle of it! Although this is common apparently. In the afternoon, we had a wander up to the termal face of the neighbouring glacier, called Franz Joseph Glacier. These glaciers are unusual as they come so close to sea level, (300m above sea level) because they move so fast.
From Franz Joseph Glacier, we headed to Hokitika, which is famous for Jade carving, but didn't stay long because of the miserable rain, and so we headed through Arthurs pass towards Christchurch. On the way over Arthurs pass in the pouring rain we found that our window wipers had stopped working, and so we had to stop for the night. When we woke up in the morning we were surprised to find that we couldn't get out of the van. When we looked out the window, we found out why..... it was an icy winter wonderland outside, and our doors were frozen
Posing Penguin
Our first and closest encounter yet with a yellow eyed penguin shut! Once the sun appeared, we thawed out and continued on to Christchurch.
From Christchurch we drove north to Kaikoura, where we'd booked a swimming lesson with a diference...... it was with wild dusky dolphins! This was great fun and something we'd looked forward to all holiday, but the boat trip out to and back from the dolphin pod was not so good - Di spent the trip with her head in a bucket looking at the complimentary gingernut biscuits she'd just eaten. The sea was quite rough tho!
Our trip to Hammner Springs was a much more gentile and warm water based activity, where we sat in hot spring pools varying in temperature from 28 degC to 42 degC! some of them also stank of sulphur!
From here, the road over Lewis Pass took us to Murchison where we went white water rafting on the Buller river. This wasn't quite as extreme as Gareth had hoped for, but it did involve going over a 2m waterfall! We finished the rafting trip with a few cliff jumps off a 6m cliff.
Golden Bay was the next stop, where we went to Takaka, a quiet chilled out
litle town where we fitted in nicely in our hippy looking van! From here it is a short hop to Abel Tasmin National Park, where we spent a day walking and sea kayaking in the sun. The highlight of this was the playful fur seals which took to playing under our kayak!
Now we are in Nelson and plan to head to Blenheim to go on a wine tour, then we'll probably head over to the North Island on the ferry on Saturday 21st.
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Anne
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Wow
Your blog sounds great. What amazing photos. NZ looks lovely - all those lovely lakes and mountains - just like home although nicer Your van looks really good. Doesn't look hippy at all. I like the name. Looking forward to more photos and stories. XX