South Island done (almost!)

It was late in the day, we were heading north along the Haast highway optimistically heading for an overnight stop in Greymouth when we passed a sign for the Fox Glacier. With daylight fading we turned off the highway and drove 3km along a side road to the start of the Fox Glacier national park. Rain was in the air and darkness was threatening to descend on us. Undeterred we embarked on a 4km trek up to the base of the Glacier. It was well worth the walk. The Fox Glacier and Franz Joseph glaciers are a rare spectacle, being two of the only glaciers to descend down a mountain range and still be a glacial 200m above sea level thereby making them readily accessible by visitors. There are strict rules regarding actually walking on the ice (you must hire a guide) but just being able to walk along side this force of nature is a real privilege. There are pictures and markers along the path highlighting how far the glacier has retreated in a relatively short time, about 1km in the last 20 years!

After taking some photos and enjoying the wild feel of the valley we headed back to the car and continued our long drive north. 

A storm was brewing, with strong winds and heavy rain combining with very wiggly roads to make our journey slow (but exciting). We stopped off at small mining town and checked into the only hotel/motel/backpackers and campground in town and waited for the storm to abate.

Next morning we aimed across country for the town of Nelson to use as a base for exploring the top of the South Island. 

Nelson is the gateway to the North Island (with a little town called Picton having a large ferry port). It's also a really pretty town with great beaches, bays, swanky cliff top houses and restaurants. The Able  Tasman peninsular is 30 minute drive away, a national park with a really sheltered coastline ideal for sea kayaking and coastal walks. 

After spending 3 days exploring the area we headed south down the Coastal Highway along rugged coastline with numerous seal colonies basking in the sunshine!

Slartibartfast would be impressed!

The road south from Dunedin to Invercargill follows the coast. We stopped at Porpoise Bay and spotted 2 yellow eared penguins, the rarest penguins on earth, just hanging out at the beach! After this brief nature encounter we headed onwards arriving in Invercargill, found a motel and settled in for the night.

Invercargill is a small, quiet city right at the south end of the South Island. We stayed for 3 nights in this little place, spending time in Bluff (the most southerly town on the planet), looking round the museum and gardens and generally just chilling using the library to plan the next leg of the trip.

Our next point of call was the little town of Te Anau (the gateway to Fjordland). Fjordland is full on, standing ovation, jaw droppingly stunning. Massive deep blue lakes, edged by shear 1000m plus snow capped peaks. On a sunny day there is nowhere that I have been that is more impressive. Unfortunately for us, we only enjoyed one day of sunshine! The weather gods were not smiling on us for the next 4 days with torrential rain, fog and super low cloud levels really spoiling the experience. 

On the off chance that the weather wouldn't be as bad at Milford Sound we set off to take a cruise around the jewel of Fjordland. There is one amazing road to Milford that is 120km long, goes through mind blowing alpine scenery and culminates by travelling through a mountain in what looks like a pretty dodgy 5km long road tunnel. After a 2 hour drive we arrived at the ferry port to be told that there was no point going on a cruise as the fog and cloud was too bad and all we would see was 20m of water around the boat!

A quick pie munch later we set off for the long trip back down the road as the weather decided to worsen and snow chased us back to Te Anau! 

Travelling around NZ in the winter, the weather can have a dramatic effect on your trip and your perception of the country as a whole. Cold rainy days make you realise just how far from home you are, whereas sunny days make you realise what a special place this country is. It's weird to be this affected by the weather as back home you rarely give the weather a thought unless something exceptional is occurring.

Anyway, after spending 4 days in the rain it was time to move on and we headed for the extreme sports capital of the world, Queenstown.

The first thing that strikes you about this town is how much it resembles Chamonix, only prettier (and with less French people in it). If you have even a slight urge to throw yourselves off something, out of something, down something wet, up something rocky, hang on a rope, slide down a mountain or swing across a gaping chasm then this your place! It seemed a bit rude not to take part so not having done a Bungy jump before Dave sought out the biggest one he could find and we headed off to the Nevis range and a 134m (8 seconds of free fall) cable car bungy. This went well, everyone who took part survived and seemed to enjoy the experience!!

After exploring Queenstown for a couple of days and experiencing the culinary delights if Fergburger (an awesome burger joint with mahoosive burgers) we had a look at Arrowtown a small mining town that had a pretty cool museum and Chinese camp to look at it we had to head up north along the West Coast via the Haast pass. Officially the best road ever!

See you next time!

We're going to need a bigger camera!

We left the delights of Geraldine and the Peel Forest and headed inland towards Mount Cook the highest mountain in New Zealand.
The differences between Australia and New Zealand become very apparent when you start travelling through the countryside. For one, the distances between different amazing vista's are much smaller. The variety of terrain packed into a small island is mind boggling, where you could drive for 7hrs and not change states in Australia we went from coast, to lush forest, to rolling hills, to wide open plains to alpine lakes in the space if a 2hr drive!

We stopped for 2 nights in the tiny lakeside town of Lake Tekapo. The alpine lake is the highest in NZ at around 750m and is surrounded on 3 sides by snow capped mountains. We stayed in The Godley hotel, a shabby little place on the main lake front. The hotel was actually fine and was a great base to explore the lakeshore and surrounding hillsides. The highlight of our little stay was taking a nighttime observatory and stargazing tour of the Mount John observatory (officially the best place to watch the night sky in New Zealand being part of a huge Dark sky reserve). We also hiked up to the top of Mount John during the day to get some great views of the surrounding countryside.

Soon it was time to head onwards towards Mt Cook, we had booked accommodation in the Mt Cook backpackers lodge in the village at the foot if Mt Cook. Driving towards the mountain range the road winds along a huge lake called Pukaki and then along a glacial valley. In contrast to the French Alps,the mountain range just seems to push out of the ground with no driving "up" the mountain to the village, it was a bit weird. We explored the Tasman valley and Glacial lake with huge icebergs that had broken off from the Glacier and had cloudy views of the top of Mt Cook before the heaviest storm moved in along the valley and just stayed there for the next 24hrs! Luckily the backpackers was fantastic, a huge modern building with a restaurant and bar and every room had mountain views. It's definitely the best backpackers we had stayed in do far!

Our next stop was the small city of Dunedin. The city itself is not anything to write home about, a cross between Coventry (60's architecture) and Bristol (hills), but attached to the coast is the Otago Peninsular. This area is pretty spectacular with great ocean views, wildlife and lots of gravel roads to drive along to deserted bays and saltwater marshes.

In Dunedin we had the misfortune to stay at the worst backpackers so far! It reminded us of an old PGL staffroom, think Court Farm or Tregoyd house circa 1992! (For info it was called the Manor House backpackers, don't believe the good reviews!)

Next time the journey to the southern most tip of NZ, Fjordland and Queenstown.