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Published: January 26th 2008
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Hello everyone!
We're currently in the North Island and we've got about 2.5 weeks before we're off to South America for the last leg of our trip.
We arrived in Christchurch from Sydney on January 4th. Christchurch has the feel of a rural English city, there is a lovely Cathedral in the city centre and a pretty little river runs right through the middle of town with rolling grassy banks. We visited the city's museum which show cases some great art from New Zealand's early European immigrants as well as having a wealth of information on Maori culture and early expeditions around New Zealand and Antarctica. We hired a converted people carrier which was to be our home for all of the South Island and much of the North Island meaning we could save on camping/hostel fees as well as having the freedom to explore areas outside of the usual tourist spots.
First stop in our little camper was The Mt. Cook area and specifically the beautiful lakes Tekapo and Pukaki. Both lakes are formed from water that has flowed down from Glaciers high in the NZ Alps and they both appear a more vivid blue than normal
owing to a different mineral content to normal lakes. This makes them exceptionally photogenic and to add to the beauty of Tekapo there is also a beautiful church on the shore which is not surprisingly a popular spot to tie the knot amongst our Kiwi brethren. Next, we journeyed on to Mount Cook. Mt. Cook is the highest mountain in the Southern Hemisphere and we caught it on a perfect day with crystal clear skies and favourable temperatures. We took a nice long walk up to the base of some of the surrounding mountains all the while in the magnificent Cook's shadow and stayed a night in Mt. Cook village which is small and full of tourists of varying budgets (think Japanese down to Lowly European students).
We made a short journey down to the South of the South Island and in particular to The Catlins National Park. We spent a few days in the Catlins doing nothing but exploring the beautiful and diverse flora/fauna found there. We were lucky enough to spy an adult Fur Seal relaxing on a beach and were able to get pretty close to it before backing off in the interest of self-preservation. On
the same beach we were also able to get within (quite literally) 3 feet of a rare Yellow-Eyed Penguin who dutifully posed for a lengthy photo shoot-we both wanted to take it home but we hear that this is frowned upon and thus decided that we would leave him/her in peace.
Next, on to Milford Sound on the SW Coast. This is an area best explored by boat which we didn't get around to owing to the intense rain on the West coast! However we did spend a great day on the road between Te Anau and The Sound which has some of the most spectacular scenery we've come across so far in the country-straight out of the Lord of the Rings trilogy! We stopped off quickly in Queenstown ("adrenalin capital" of NZ) before heading on to the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers on the western side of the alps. Both glaciers are beautiful, shear faces of ice that look like large rivers frozen by some magic spell lost in the immensity of geological time. In fact (so the info. boards tell us) they are formed by continuous snow fall at high altitudes that combines with rock etc. to
form hard packed ice that "flows" on a thin bed of water down the mountain side, if the ice melts quicker than it can be formed at the rear then it recedes and vice versa if it is added quicker than it can melt.
With the icy part of our trip over we moved up to Abel Tasman National Park (named after the Dutch chap who first mapped the area) in the North of the South Island. Abel Tasman has lovely calm seas and forested hills that lead down to vast sandy beaches. We took a boat to half way through the park and then walked back which took the best part of a day but was well worth it for the scenery (which you may now have guessed is a large part of coming to NZ!).
The last part of our South Island adventure was spent in the North of the Island. We visited a lovely little winery in Nelson for a platter lunch that was of exceptional quality, quantity and value! I was lucky enough to surf again in a place called White's Bay where (for the second time on this trip) I shared the water
with two dolphins! This time it was a Mother with an infant and they were rare Hector's Dolphins which are only found around NZ-lucky us! We then stayed in Picton for a night where we caught the Interislander Ferry to the North Island for the next part of our trip!
Hope everyone is keeping well. See you all in a little less than 3 months!
Hugs and Kisses,
Adam and Janice.xxx
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Liisa Bevan
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Intrepid Travellers
Hi intrepid travellers! So glad you're having a fun time, but it's flown by. Enjoy reading and viewing the pictures from your accounts, so will miss them when you return. Can't wait to hook up to hear all about your exploits and to see all the pictures. Take care and God bless. Gail and Liisa x