South Island Part 1 Picton to Wanaka

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Once off the ferry in Picton we were a little undecided on where to go so we ended up driving around aimlessly for a while. Picton is a picturesque little fishing village and we drove up a hill which looked down over the harbor and the boats which were bobbing in the water. Our plan was to head down the West coast but we weren't sure whether to go to the wine producing town of Blenheim first or head to the coastal town of Nelson. While driving around Picton we heard on the local radio news that a man was going around terrorising women by burping in their faces. We didn't want to hang around when a burping loon was on the prowl so we left town to head towards Blenheim.

After driving for a while alongside endless stretches of vineyards we arrived in Blenheim, we didn't much like the look of the place so we decided to back track and started heading towards Nelson. It was getting dark by this point so we stopped in a small town called Havelock for the night. Havelock is the Green Lipped Mussel Capital of the World. We wanted to try some, but all the restaurants were closed so we ended up cooking up some pasta in the back of Chats in a hostel car park which the owner had kindly let us stay in for free.

The next morning we drove to Nelson. It lies at the shore of the Tasman Bay and it is a centre for arts and crafts. We spent the morning exploring the town and browsing the arts and crafts market and in the afternoon we headed to an area on the outskirts of the town which is home to Nelsons beautiful beaches. The main beach was huge and the sea water was completely clear and like all the sea, river and lake water in New Zealand unbelievably clean. It looked like a tropical paradise, it was only the giant snow capped mountains in the background that suggested otherwise. We treated ourselves to an amazing seafood lunch and afterward headed to a smaller, secluded beach and watched the windsurfers. We decided that this spot would be a good place to spend the night. The sunset that night was the best we've seen so far. It went down over the mountains and the remaining light reflected and shimmered in the sea in front of them. The sky was a palette of reds, purples and oranges and the colours reflected of the snowy peaks and radiated across the sky. The sun went down fast and as it did the colours in the sky evolved and changed mood. It was breathtaking.

Our thinking that this was a good spot to sleep was to be proved wrong as at about 11.30. While we were fast asleep, we were rudely awoken by a knocking on our door. It was a security officer who told us that overnight camping was not permitted in this area. We wearily got ourselves together and drove out of town until we found the nearest rest stop were we could park up for free.

The next day we started making our way on to the highway which would take us down the West Coast. This drive is one the best in New Zealand and takes in some of the countries most stunning scenery. On one side of the highway is the rugged coastline and on the other are the majestic Southern Alps and the lakes. Our first major stop was to be Franz Josef, but we made a few small stops along the way. The first was Cape Foulwind, so called because when Captain James Cook discovered this area it happened to be a rather windy day, when we were there is was beautifully calm. It is famous because of its Fur Seal breeding colony and we took a walk along the cliff edge to take at look at them. Our next stop were the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki. For anyone who is interested the 'pancake' layering of the limestone was created by immense pressure on alternating hard and soft layers of marine creatures and plant sediments and during high tides the sea bursts though a number of vertical blowholes created by erosion. It was much more impressive than it sounds. Our final stop was Greymouth, a rather mundane, faceless town. We used this opportunity to re-stock with food and then headed further towards Franz Josef along the coast and found a sleeping spot about an hour away from the town.

We got up early the next day and drove the remainder of the way to Franz Josef. The town is famous for its glacier which together with the Fox Glacier 20 km to the south, is unique in the fact that it descends from the Southern Alps to less than 300 metres above sea level amidst the greenery and lushness of a temperate rainforest. It is also one of only three glaciers to come so close to a coastline. The glacier is currently 12 km long and is fed by a large snowfield, the névé, at high altitude. Due to strong snowfall it is one of the few glaciers in New Zealand which is still growing. We had booked a half day trip to go walking on it.

The views of the glacier as we walked up to it's foot were spectacular. It snakes its way down from the top of the mountain and from a distance you can see the whole thing and really appreciate how massive it is. Once at it's foot we donned our crampons and started our assent up the face of the glacier. Our guide explained about the history of the glacier, recently the glacier had erupted piles of rock from underneath it due a build up of pressure so the glacier wasn't quite as squeaky clean and white as it once was, it was still incredible though. The ice is so compact and pure that even the thickest sections are translucent and the scale of the thing is phenomenal, we were only a tiny part of the way of up and the rest of it towered above us menacingly. We walked along a flat part of the glacier and crawled through an ice tunnel before turning back to make our desent. It was an amazing experience, we just wished that we had done the full day trip to go even deeper into on to it.

After this we drove just out town to visit Lake Matheson before the sun went down. It is famous for its perfect mirrored reflections of Mount Cook, New Zealands highest mountain, which sits behind it. Unfortunately when we got there the cloud had come in and there was no reflection to be seen, just a dull grey lake.

We struggled to find a sleeping spot that night and eventually settled for a less than ideal spot right next to the main road and a squashed possum. The next day we made our way to our next big stop, Wanaka. We drove along the Haast pass a mountain pass in the Southern Alps which runs next to a river and cuts through the mountains with great views of the peaks. The scenic approach into Wanaka took us alongside Lake Hawea and then Lake Wanaka both of which were surrounded by yet more mountains belonging to the Southern Alps and after a lot of driving we were glad to be somewhere we could call home for a few days.

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