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Published: March 28th 2009
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We left the North Island and took the ferry across to the South Island. We headed along the North coast to Abel Tasman national park for a spot of kayaking. Along the way we saved a cute hedgehog from becoming road kill. We took a 2 day kayaking trip in the hope of seeing the seal colonies there. We weren't dissapointed. We saw 3 separate colonies in all the recommended locations and were able to kayak really close, it was amazing, the seals were swimming under and around the boat and the pups were really sweet!! Its hard for photos really to do justice to the experience.. There were also loads of lovely beaches to stop for a rest on even if the sandflies drive you mad, this is the worst country for getting bitten!! We stayed overnight in a backpackers boat just off the beach. There were 14 of us on the catamaran, and our bed was only about 6 inches from the ceiling which was really weird, if you turned over in the night you banged your arm on the ceiling but its all good fun! THe national park was really amazing to see espcially from the water which
was quite choppy in places, thank god we didn't capsize, the water is freezing!! Travelling by sea also gave us a break from hiking!!
After tearing ourselves away from the seals we headed down the South Islands west coast to Franz Josef Glacier, taking a pit stop at Pancake rocks, which unsuprisingly are rocks shaped like pancakes. The Glacier is fairly inaccesible unless you take a really expensive helicopter flight. Ever resourceful we found a free 6 hour hike to get a better view!! The walk was really hard clambering up a down really slippy rocks but we made it to the top to take in the view. About 20 minutes into the descent Steve realised he'd left his hat at the top so I soldiered back up to the top to retrieve it!! He has lost so many hats along the way I couldn't let another one go!! We set up camp at a Department of Conservation camp site, we got loads of weird looks for washing froma bucket in cold water but we smelt really bad so we had to try and get clean!! The next day we took a shorter walk to the bottom of the
glacier and realised you could get almost as good a view without 6 hours of hiking but we had fun!!
The next stop along the road was Fox where there is another glacier but we felt a bit glaciered out so we took a walk around Lake Mathieson to try and see Mount Cook except it was really cloudy so we couldnt see much! We stayed at a lovely camp sight at Gillespies beach (if you go here you need DEET!) which also had Mountains views whixh finally came into view before dark with a lovely rainbow too!! The next morning we took a 4 hour hike to see some more seals.....It was really yukky and muddy and we thought what are we doing!! Fortunately, we were up reallt early and so were the first on the path...When we arrived there were loads of massive seals and we were able to sit among them quietly for about an hour with no other people until one massive male got the hump and growled at us so reluctantly we had to leave!!! It was amazing to see so many together on the rocks and in the sea, I think it was
my favourite thing in NZ so far!!
We drove another few hours down the road to Haast where we treated ourselves to a motel room with a hot shower (we smelt really bad and the van odour was making us feel quite sick!! We hadn't realised how bad we smelt till we washed in hot water!) it was such a luxury and really refreshed us!! The next day was raining very hard so we drove to Queenstown where we are now. On the way, we stopped at a place called Wanaka to go to a weird palce called Puzzle world. There was a massive maze there and loads of puzzles and optical illusions and stuff...It was only spitting so we attempted the maze. You had to try and find all 4 corners the get out!! It was bloody impossible!! We found 2 corners then the heavens opened and we couldnt get out!!! I was like a drowned rat by the time we found a door out!! Sadly, the rain didn't stop so we couldn't finish it off (next time!!)...The illusions were cool, there was a room on a massive slope so stuff roled up hill and holograms pictures and
faces that followed you round the room and we had a good giggle!
We arrived at Queenstown which is a adventure sports haven but having exhausted our adventure sports budget 😞 we just went for a jog around the lake and relaxed (for a change!!).....We're going to chill out here for a bit before heading back up north maybe via the South Islands east coast........
We're still having a great time, we can't believe it will soon be over!!!!
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