South Island's West Coast (08 - 14 Nov 2010)

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They were broadcasting a quite ridiculous film about Catherine Zeta Jones being a chef of a restaurant and having a relationship with his new sous chef within the cabin of our ferry boat to the South Island… Instead of becoming stupid, we decided to go outside in case there was already something nice to see due that we were expecting to arrive very soon… and yes, our eyes popped literally out of our head. We were crossing the Marlborough Sounds and the nature looked incredible! Very different to what we encountered on the North Island which was more beaches, tropical forests, geothermal spots,… It gave much more a mountainous feeling… something more similar to Norway or Canada or Switzerland. Once the ferry stopped and dropped us in little fishing town of Picton, we decided to head straight to the west coast stopping first in Abel Tasman National Park for a bushwalk to reach the gold sandy beaches.

Many people would take a few days here. The park has no road access for cars and the nicest spots are quite a distance. The 2 options you got here is walking or kayaking through the sea. Unfortunately, our time was precious and we went for a smaller day walk to the Apple tree Bay and the Apple Split Rock. IPeople we met were saying that this is only very little to what you can see further . The thing I liked was that sea is not deep at all and sandbanks start appearing everywhere for about a km distance during low tide.

Next stop was Punakaiki and the Paparoa National Park with it's Pancake rocks. The road access through the west coast to reach this destination is quoted within Lonely Planet as a top 10 roadtrip on the planet… and indeed it was, we kept on stopping by the side of the road to take pictures of the beach with huge black rocks coming out of the water called "apostles".

Further South, the West Coast is also known for his Glaciers: Franz Josef and Fox. Both are very similar but I would rather go for Fox if I had to chose one. The main reason for this is that the glacier is much more accessible and you can have a closer look to it. Also, the glacier is very low compared to Europe and goes by the end through forests.

Finally, our west coast road stopped in the picturesque village of Queenstown.

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Photos

Ferry Crossing
Arriving on the South Island

Abel Tasman National Park
Apple Tree Bay

Abel Tasman National Park
Apple Split Rock

Punakaiki
Punakaiki Pancake Rocks

Coastal view
Apostels