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Published: January 12th 2010
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Since crossing over to the south island I've had a busy last week or so. Kaikoura was my first stop after I'd spent one night in the little town of Picton. Kaikoura is a coastal town which is known for being a great place to see seals, dolphins and whales and the reason for this is due to the canyon under the sea which is located just off the coast. Due to the canyon, the depth of the water reaches about 1000m only a couple of kms from the shore and this attracts lots of marine mammals and other wildlife to the area. On one of the days that I was in Kaikoura, I walked to the peninsular from where you have a good chance of seeing some seals as they move in from the sea to have a rest on the land. I managed to see about 20 or so seals which was really good and it was a nice walk too as you can walk all the way along the coast for a few kms and then loop back by walking on top of the cliffs. Whilst I was in Kaikoura, I also booked myself on a boat to
go out and see some dolphins. There was the opportunity to do some whale watching instead but it was a bit too expensive for me so i decided the dolphin watching would be better value for money. I was really impressed how easy it was for them to find the dolphins, we motored out from the shore for about 20 minutes and then we quickly found a huge pod of about 300 or 400 dusky dolphins which we then stayed with for about an hour and a half. The dusky dolphins are known for their acrobatic skills and we got to see them doing flips, somersaults, swimming upside down and all sorts which was brilliant. The company running the trip were quick to point out that they don't use any bait or anything to attract the dolphins, they just rely on good eyesight to spot them. Most of the time the area around the boat was absolutely swamped with hundreds of dolphins - it was an excellent trip out on the water and well worth the money.
From Kaikoura, I took a bus to Nelson which is back towards the top of the south island. I found a new
bus company to use called Atomic Shuttles which I think only operate on the south island but they seem much cheaper than the company I was using before (which were called InterCity if anyone is interested). I think I'll definitely be using Atomic to get around from now on. Nelson is another coastal town and it's known for always being sunny there. The main reason why I was visiting Nelson was so that I could use it as a base to get to the nearby Abel Tasman National Park which is a fantastic looking area of golden beaches and clear blue water bays surrounded by forest. The place that I was staying in Nelson was just ridiculously good - it was like I was staying in a five star hotel yet it was the same price as all the other standard hostels I'd been staying in during the rest of the time in New Zealand. It was called Golden Lodge and it was on the side of a hill overlooking the town. The inside of the building was so nice that I was almost scared to touch anything, there were chandeliers in most of the rooms - even in the
bathroom! I think whoever owns that place is going to have to raise their prices soon since they can't be making much profit from it with all the upkeep costs. On my first day in Nelson I just went to check out the nearby beach. It was pretty windy that day and there must of been about 30 kite surfers out in the sea which were fun to watch for a bit. The next day, it was an early start as I was going to spend the day at Abel Tasman. My plan was to catch a bus to a nearby town which is right next to the national park and then I was going to get a water taxi to a bay which is about 13kms away from where I would be catching a bus back to Nelson in the evening. The water taxi ride was great fun and I got a good view of the area from the water. Once I'd been dropped off at my destination, I spent the rest of the day slowly making my way past some great little beaches and up some high forest tracks that overlook the bays to my pickup point. It
was an enjoyable day and the weather was great too which made it even better.
After Nelson, I had a long journey ahead of me to a place on the west coast which couldn't really of been much different to the places I'd just visited. After 9 hours I finally arrived at Franz Josef which is right in the heart of glacier country and is home to the Franz Josef glacier. My plan was to go on a guided climb up the glacier the next day but unfortunately the weather ruined that since the heavy rain and strong winds meant my trip was cancelled. Since I only had 1 day available to do the climb due to me leaving the next day, it meant I didn't get to do it which was a shame. The weather cleared up a little bit in the afternoon so me and a couple of people from my hostel walked to the base of the glacier to have a look around - I couldn't leave Franz Josef without at least actually seeing some ice! I couldn't see much of the glacier due to the clouds but I could see the very bottom. It's pretty
amazing how quick the glaciers around that area move - the Franz Josef glacier moves over 1m a day! On the way back we could see a lot of huge chunks of ice floating down the river that must of broken off the glacier. I managed to see some keas too which are a type of alpine parrot - I'd never seen one before so that was great. So, unfortunately I had to leave Franz Josef having not climbed up the glacier but at least I still got to see some interesting stuff. Next, another long journey was ahead of me to Queenstown in the south of the south island - more about that next time.
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