Our second half of the South Island journey was just as pretty and went just as well as our first. We're getting more and more used to life in New Zealand. We're using words/ phrases like cheers, mate and sweet as! We're making sure to get things done before 5pm since absolutely no one in New Zealand will work past then and we're even driving mostly on the left side of the road.
After leaving Wanaka we had a beautiful drive along Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea and spent the night in Cameron Flat. Cameron Flat was a great campsite, except for the large sand fly population. Usually Gina gets it much worse when it comes to insect bites, but I think I got 16 bites on one foot at Cameron Flat. We met a really cool couple, Matt and Tonya, who are from Colorado and are traveling around New Zealand for three months. If you want to read more awesome travel blogging, they're documenting their trip at takestwototravel.com.
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| Campsite at Cameron Flat, Gina was busy killing sandflies |
We left Cameron Flat and drove to Fox Glacier, where we did a hike to the beginning of the glacier and then drove a few miles up the road to Franz Josef Glacier and explored around there. We booked a helicopter ride (the only way you can actually get onto the glacier) and glacier hike for the next day. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate the next day and we were told at the helicopter place that all the flights that day had been cancelled.
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| Fox Glacier |
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| Waterfalls on the walk to Franz Josef Gacier |
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| Franz Josef |
With the bad weather we decided that we would dedicate that day to learning more about New Zealand culture so we decided to head to a bar to drink some local beers for the rest of the day and watch the cricket World Cup, where New Zealand was playing Australia. As luck would have it, we also ran into Tonya and Matt whose helicopter trip had also been cancelled so we all settled in for a rainy afternoon of beer and cricket.
From watching the game and some furious googling we figured out most of the rules and when we should cheer. The game actually went really quick by cricket standards, but after three hours it was only half way over. We couldn't quite afford the amount of beer that we would have needed to make the rest of the match entertaining enough to stick around. New Zealand ended up winning by one run when Sir James Edmund Cook hit a wicked googeley off of Australian bowler Dingo McWallabey, or something like that. We actually enjoyed it quite a big and plan to watch more in Australia, but haven't decided if we'll change our allegiance based on the country we're in.
In addition to the sand flies, the west coast had mosquitos that were the size of small birds. Gina was even more maniacal about killing the mosquitos than she had been about the sand flies. The inside of our van looked like a crime scene. I don't even think Dexter would have been able to figure out where all the blood had come from.
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| West Coast |
The following day we had a beautiful drive up the west coast, slowly working our way north while taking in all the views. We made it up to Motueka and Abel Tasman National Park where we rented a kayak and did a two day paddling/camping trip along the coast.
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| Pancake Rocks at Punaikai |
We got to paddle about 12 miles along the coast and explore some really cool islands that were inhabited by fur seals with lots of pups. The only downside of the paddle was that we were paddling into a headwind of 15 knots. We still haven't figured what a knot is, but we do know that 15 of them is pretty strong and created some big waves.
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| Paddling along the coast |
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| Lunch break at Anchorage Bay |
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| Beautiful lunch spot (good break after paddling hard through the wind) |
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| Paddling in the lagoon near camp |
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| Split Apple Rock (apparently the most photographed rock in NZ) |
We had a really sweet campsite at Bark Bay right above the beach. It was also one of the only places we've been where you could have a campfire, which was really nice. We had a big fire with a very international crowd with people from Canada, Holland, France, Germany and Australia. We really liked kayak camping because it was a fun way to get to explore and it's a little easier to bring more stuff (particularly wine and beer). We are definitely thinking of investing in a kayak when we get home.
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| View from Bark Bay campsite |
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| Cooking breakfast over the open flame |
After day two of the kayak trip we drove across to the east coast where we found another nice campsite right on Marfells Beach and drove down the east coast towards Kaikoura. We stopped along a few beaches on the way that had tons of seals on them. The big ones just kind of laid around as seals are prone to do, but there were a lot of pups that were very energetic and would chase each other around in the tide pools.
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| Seals! |
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| Seal pups playing while the adults slept |
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| Cuddling with a rock |
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| Hiking on the bluffs above Kaikoura |
When we got to Kaikoura we did a walk around the peninsula, saw more seals and got some great views from the bluffs. It was pretty, but having just been to Abel Tasman, it didn't quite compare. After making our way a little further south and staying in Amberley Beach we headed up towards Aurhtur's Pass.
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| The seals were everywhere in Kaikoura |
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| Too much fun last night and couldn't make it all the way to the water |
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| Entering Cave Stream |
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| We go up there?! |
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| Picture doesn't do it justice but it was pitch black in the cave |
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| We made it! |
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| Crawling out of the exit |
We camped at Lake Pearson for the night while a huge storm rolled in. Lots of rain and wind. We waited it out in the van playing cards the next morning and giving thanks that we were not chaperones on the middle school camping trip that was a couple campsites down from us. When we got a brief break in the weather we drove the rest of the way up to Arthur's Pass. The drive was beautiful as the heavy rain had created waterfalls everywhere, many of which were coming off the mountain and actually landing on the road (equally scary and fun). There were also some pretty big rock slides which were all scary and no fun.
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| Campsite at Pearson Lake |
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| Pearson Lake |
By the time we reached the pass it was raining pretty hard and a severe weather warning had been issued. We decided to do a very quick hike to Punch Bowl Falls, which turned into a jog and then an all out sprint as the rain kept falling harder. The falls was pretty spectacular at flood levels. After sprinting back to the car we decided we should probably get down off the mountain before the raining and flooding got worse. We were a little disappointed we didn't get to explore Arthur's Pass area as much as we would have liked, but can't complain as overall we got excellent weather for our trip.
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| Punch Bowl Falls after Stormagedon |
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| When the flood starts coming down the stairs it is time to get off the mountain |
We stayed in Springfield for the night and headed to the airport in morning with a stop at the famous Sheffield Pie Shop, which was amazing. We returned our van, a sad moment (somehow Aerosmith's "I Don't Want To Miss a Thing"came on as we were returning the van, which was a perfectly sad song for the mood of returning our van and ending our trip, but I swear my eyes were just watering from my allergies) and headed back to Auckland. We spent one last night in Auckland with Becca, got some great beer and had a wonderful last meal in New Zealand.
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| So good! |
Overall, a really great month in New Zealand as we got to do everything that was at the top of our list. Also, definitely a place that is high up on our list of places that we'll probably visit again someday.
Now on to Australia!
B and G
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