NZ3 West Coast, Abel Tasman,and Marborough Region: Days 165-173

Next we headed up the west coast and stopped to see the famous pancake rocks in Punakaiki. We then headed to Totaranui at the northern part of Abel Tasman National Park. The park has a long walking track that takes 3-5 days to hike with huts along the way for camping. Since we have a sleepervan and we don't have camping equipment, we decided we would just do a couple day hikes. The first day we spent six hours hiking along the amazing coast line. The next day we drove down to Marahua, at the south end of the park, and hiked in to Apple Bay. Our next destination was Nelson. We spent an afternoon walking around downtown. Next we headed to Pelorus Bridge and did a couple of trails. We found a beautiful, clear river to take a quick swim. That night we headed out for a night walk to spot some glow worms. There were lots of them. The next day we drove through a town called Havelock, took a walk on the harbour and checked out the school Rutherford attended. We hiked a bit on the Queen Charlotte Track and then headed to Blenheim and Renwick and spent a day traveling around some of the wineries in the Marborough wine region. Our last stop on the South Island was Picton, where we did a little more hiking.

Pancake Rocks

Another view of the pancake rocks.

Another formation at the pancake rocks.

We walked down to the beach at the pancake rocks. There are supposed to be penguins around this beach but they only come on shore at dawn and dusk and we were there at noon.

Goat Bay at Abel Tasman.

View from the Abel Tasman Track.

Wainui Falls, near Totarnui.

Apple Bay

The water at Apple Bay was freezing. I could not believe so many people were swimming.

Sunrise at our campsite in Marahau.

Heading out of Abel Tasman we stopped to see Split Apple Rock. This rock is the symbol for the park.

Cathedral in Nelson. There was also a really good beer pub in Nelson.

We drove from Nelson to the Pelorus River Bridge. From there we hiked to the top of Trig K outlook. 

The Pelorus River.

Swimming in the river. It was cold.

Cold but very clear water.

From Pelorus we drove through Havelock on our way to Blenheim. Ernest Rutherford was from here and the old school house where he studied is now a hostel.

View from Queen Charlotte Track

At the Spy Valley Vineyard.

The reason it is called Spy Valley. Just a few kilometers down the road from the vineyard is this complex. Apparently a joint US/NZ intelligence effort monitoring satellites and/or aliens.

We had lunch at the George Michel vineyard cafe.

Lots of grapesvines.

At Picton, before we took the ferry to Wellington, we hiked around the bay.

Looking back from the ferry ride at Picton on the South Island as we head to Wellington on the North Island. We have really enjoyed our visit to the beautiful South Island.  

NZ2 Milford Sounds Glaciers: Days 162-164

First of all, we are currently on the north island and away from any earthquake danger. We are very behind in our blogging due to lack of internet access.

Next, we headed to the Milford Sound. It was beautiful! We did some short hikes around the sound and the did a couple hikes in the surrounding area. After the Sound we headed up to Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier to see the big ice. Does anyone know what makes glacier ice blue? We didn't come across an explaination for that. After the glaciers, we stopped at a little gold minning town called Ross.  

Field and stream on the way from Teanu to Milford Sound

At Milford Sound.

Near Milford Sound.

More Milford Sound.

We camped at a DOC campground south of the Sound. This river was near our site.

Nice woods with giant trees at the site.

More of the park.

A lake near our campsite.

Hiking in the park near the campground.

The river near our campground. You can see some vans in the background.

The next day we visited Lake Wanaka. A nice town and lake.

We hiked up Mt. Iron near the lake. This is a view of the lake from the top of Mt. Iron.

We camped at a very small campground between Lake Wanaka and the glacier area. The site had a nice view of a river at dusk.

The next morning we visited a waterfall on the way to the glaciers. 

Walking to Fox Glacier. This is the valley where the glacier was in the past. If you look closely, you can see a line of people (very tiny) walking through the valley.

The Fox Glacier.

Closer to the Fox Glacier.

The Franz Josef Glacier.

In front of the Franz Josef Gacier.

The Franz Josef, a little closer. There is a surveyor standing to the right of the bottom of the glacier, to give you perspective of its size.

A hiking trail through Ross, the goldmine town, went by one of the oldest cemetaries in NZ.

There was a jail at the old goldmining town.

NZ1 Christchurch, Mt. Cook, Kinloch, Catlins: Days 156-161

We flew to Christchurch and spent a day wandering around the city. We also had the opportunity to meet up with our friend Gill, whom we met while travelling in Egypt.

Christchurch Cathedral

We spent some time walking along the river that runs through town.

And walked through the botanical gardens.

We visited the art museum. 

Another view of the museum.

Next we picked up our sleepervan and headed to Mount Cook.

View of Mount Cook.

Walking path near our campsite. The swinging bridge had a lot of swing to it and the water was really moving.

Our campground at Mount Cook. The NZ Department of Conservation has some really nice campgrounds.

Mount Cook area.

We drove along a beautiful river, The Roaring Meg. You can't really tell in the picture but the water was a brilliant blue.

We drove to Queenstown and camped a little outside of town at Moke Lake.

Red rocks near Moke Lake

The mountains around Moke Lake.

Next we headed to Kinlock and camped on a lake.

There are sheep everywhere!

 

Next we headed to the southern part of the east coast and camped at Purakaunui Bay.

View from a trail at the bay.

 

Another view of the bay.

The next day we went hiking in the Catlins and saw some great waterfalls.

The forest is full of giant ferns.

It was rainning so we thought we'd do a cave trail. Unfortunately the cave was small and the hike to the cave was largely on the beach. We were soaked by the time we got back to the car. We spent the night in Invercargill.

Next we are heading to the Milford Sound. On our drive there we had to stop for a sheep crossing.