South island is an amazing place, rugged coastline, vast mountain ranges, a large number of single lane bridges & lakes everywhere, and only a million people.....but 20 million sheep...... the campervan is the ideal way to see this island, they have uncrowded roads, very cheap camp sites with good facilities (11 quid a night) and you get to meet loads of people from all over the world....a third of the island is given over to national parks, some great places to see....also, where a lot of Lord of the rings was filmed..
Here you can jump of it, climb up it, absail down it, cave raft under it, body board, raft the rapids or jet boat it, that is before you get into the many options for jumping out of planes or off the side of mountains.....get the picture ? yes it really is the adventure capital of the world, or so they say....
We decided to make a dash through part of the island from Picton where the ferry arrives across to the west coast & then on down to Frans Joseph, a journey of 600 klms (not easy in the Jucy deisel van, no turbo though quite smart compared to the converted buses !) but we did it in 2 days, this meant we could spend maximum time in the areas we had to rush through last time, and visit others we didn't get to.
We didn't feel great about this as the scenery in the North of the island is stunning, but, maybe next time we thought !
We managed to get to see the Pancake rocks again & blowholes.....by the coast, these are unique and are not found any where else in the world, they look like piles of thick pancakes, the sea surges into cavens below and booms through the blowholes, quite a sight at high tide.....
Then on to the glacier area, we went for the helicopter trip so we could really see the range & step out on top.....what an amazing feeling, you must do it.. The hike to the face of the glacier was well worth doing, you balance on rocks while crossing streams & walk along riverbeds, there is an option to do an ice climb, but we thought this was too much for us.....fitness and all that.
The next night we were on the beach in Haast, did a great walk to Munroe beach through thick bush to see the Fjiordland crested penguin nesting. We came through the trees to a lovely sandy bay with crashing waves, had to be patient though to catch them coming out of the surf onto the beach....they alomost seemed to check it out before coming out, so we hid behind the sculptured rocks and rewarded with 6 penguins....we must have looked pretty bloody stupid though !
The drive through Haast pass to Queenstown must be one of the best you can do, it has everything, dramatic gorges, amazing mountain scenenry & waterfalls everywhere.Takes about 4 hours, you don't want it to end.
We found one bridge with a suspension bridge over it (was dodgy) going down to blue pools of completely clear water, breathetaking if you could get across the bridge !!
Queenstown is the centre for adventure activity, we settled for some adventure and some sightseeing as we are getting on a bit now....the one thing we really wanted to do was the shotover canyon jet boat....it wasn't running the last time we came due to weather, but it was this time and wow....what a great ride, still thrilling as we swerved just inches from the canyon walls.
The Gondola takes you to the top of the mountain where you can see the whole area & ride the luge or paraglide or bungy...whatever takes your fancy.
The mini cruise around the lake is always worth doing. the sing along on board is nostalgic, what will young people sing I wonder in the future !!
The time here went all too quickly and Colin didn't get to meet up with his old work friend as he was away visiting a sick relative, ah well, next time....
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