Onwards to the North (of the South.........)

Pancake Rocks and Buller Gorge

I forgot to mention that the West Coast is famous for sand flies.  They are the size of a fruit fly but with FANGS!  They will even bite through clothes.  They make Scottish midges look like amateurs. The west coast is beautiful but if the weather is warm enough (and it’s NOT raining!) you can’t sit outside because of the sand flies!  SO, as you move further up the coast to the North of South Island the flies become less and less……………………marvellous!

We drove through the Buller Gorge on the way to the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki.  

The wild west coast - on a calm day!

The pancake rocks are famous because of their pancake like appearance (caused by softer mud rock eroded from between layers of limestone) thereby causing “blow holes” that the sea is forced through at high tide.  We arrived at 10:40am and high Tide was 11:00am…………………how’s that for timing??

  

A blow hole explosion - AND a rainbow.....

Kaiteriteri

Sadly we didn’t have time to get all the way up to the  Abel Tasman National Park.  We got to Kaiteriteri on the coast in Tasman Bay.  A fantastic coastline but we decided that EVERY Kiwi on holiday had decided to go there too!  We had the last place in the park that we booked into. There were 450 spaces and almost every one had a motorhome or caravan plus an awning, a 4x4 and a boat!  t looked like the poshest refugee camp on the planet but was one big party. It was a bit crowded so we moved on the next day in search of peace and quiet again.

 

The road over the mountains to the coast

Kaiteriteri Bay

 

The Glaciers

We spent a long day visting both Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers.  We were able to walk to the base of both of them - although even from the car park this took 40 minutes.  We were very impressed with how the Department of Conservation are constantly maintaining the pathways to enable people to walk there as the water levels are constantly changing depending on the weather. It was obvious in parts that on a rainy day some of the paths would be under a lot of water. Information showed the place where the glaciers WERE some 40 years ago - a long way foward from where they are today.  You can do guided walks further up the glaciers or take the easy route - by helipcopter.

Fox Glacier:

.....easy walk then?? - some idiots still ignore signs like this.

The trail to the glacier

Fox Glacier

Franz Josepf Glacier:

Walk to the Glacier

Franz Joseph Glacier

Continuing up the West Coast......

19th January 2012

From Queenstown we made our way to nearby Cromwell where we met up with Fiona.  We first met Fiona last year on our last night in Buenos Aires where we were eating at the same restaurant.  During our various travel tales we mentioned that we intended coming to New Zealand where Fiona now lives and that we planning to travel by motorhome.  Fiona lives in the South Island but had a friend in Auckland who has a motorhome and, after emailing her, arranged to borrow her motorhome for our North Island adventure! We couldn’t pass by without visiting her and she kindly allowed us to park Kiwi Kezza in her drive and took us to a great restaurant called FEAST in Cromwell . Well done Josh & Co - great food. And thanks Fi for your help in planning this great trip........One day we'll get the Kiwis to talk proper English!

Fiona, Josh, Karen and Malc

Leaving Cromwell we travelled along the Haast Pass towards the glaciers.  We stopped at the Blue Pools on the way where you can see trout travelling up the river.  Unfortunately you can’t fish in this area otherwise I am sure we would have been tempted! Lots of trout......

The next night was spent by a lake in a lovely conservation site again. It was REALLY windy so only a few brave souls camped out and just two motorhomes.

During our stay in Christchurch we had been told that Jackson Bay was a great place to visit.  It's a  crayfish and fishing port but absolutely nothing else there except some great conservation walks and a converted caravan that is now a restaurant - the Cray Pot.  We had fantastic fish and chips and whitebait patties and then went back to buy some seafood chowder for tea just before they closed!

We walked through the fern forest to another beach and we were followed by some tiny birds called fantails....

Our parking spot for the night.

Sunset over Jackson Bay

Queenstown and Glenorchy

We arrived in Queenstown quite late in the afternoon but still had time to go up in the cable car and look out over the town.  Queenstown is a delightful place - buzzy in warm summer and apparently lively in winter with it's very popular ski slopes.

We had dinner in a lovely old hotel called Eichardts in the bay...!.and for the first time had NZ whitebait - much smaller than the whitebait at home but delicious nonetheless



A true steamer ship in the Bay



Eichardt's hotel

The next day we drove about 30k out of Queenstown to the beautiful little village of Glenorchy....The lake on which Queenstown sits is 78km long.  Glenorchy is at the northern end.

Then back to Queenstown by lunchtime for our appointment with a very fast jet boat in Shotover Canyon....it was amazing!!!  The boat hurtles down the canyon at up to 50mph - just inches from the rocks - and can operate in only 10cm of water.

Te Anau, Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound

From 13th-16^th Jan we concentrated on the Fiordland Region of South Island.  We decided to do an overnight mini-crusie boat on Doubtful Sound and a short 2 hour trip on Milford Sound as the latter is much smaller but more dramatic (and a bit more touristy). We spent two nights in Te Anau first -  which was beautiful. 

It got very cold and there was a snowfall on the surrounding mountains the day before we left for Doubtful Sound.  To get to this area we had to drive for an hour to Manapouri Lake and get a boat across the lake then a coach for an hour over the Wilmot Pass before reaching our ship for the night. 

The Wilmot Pass

Our home on Doubtful Sound

Thee trip was very professionally run by “Real Journeys” and the staff were very knowledgeable throughout with a young guy specifically there to tell us about the geology of the region and answer any questions about the nature of the area.  The catering staff did a great job and wonderful food and wine was provided throughout.

HUGE waterfalls

We anchored in a sheltered bay in the afternoon for kayaking, swimming etc....the water was REALLY cold!

We briefly went out into the Tasman Sea that evening before anchoring in a sheltered bay for dinner and overnight.

Fur Seals in the Tasman Sea

The next morning we set sail at 6:30am....

Then on to Milford Sound.......the road was amazing!

 Whilst you wait to go through the Milford Tunnel (which can be up to 15 minutes) the Keas - the cheeky adolescents of the bird world, investigate your vehicle looking for any food.

There were a number of Department of Conservation sites to stay at but we decided to go to the end of the road and Milford Sound itself to see if there was anywhere to stay there.  Once the tourists have gone, campervans are able to stay in the car park on the waters edge for the equivalent of £10 per night so we decided to do that - magical!

What a view!

.....and our very own sundeck!

This was the view at 7am the next morning................

Then we set off on our boat trip before most of the tourists arrived....

Fur seals in Milford Sound