Our West Coast Journey to Queenstown

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Entry Trip End Dec 21, 2005 Next
Entry

  Abel Tasman, Westport, Greymouth,Southern Alps and Wanaka, New Zealand
Sunday, October 30, 2005

Sunday 23rd October 2005
Crossing from the North to the South Island

We set the alarm for 6.45 am this morning as last check in was 7.45 am to board the ferry. We had a quick breakfast and set off, me driving to the InterIslander ferry terminal in Wellington. We arrived to check in at 7.43 am but luckily there was heaps of cars and campers in the queue behind us. We drove to deck 3, parked up and walked upstairs to get a hot chocolate and sit back in the recliner chairs (much nicer than an aircraft I must say!). We sat at the terminal for an hour before the ferry left so I bought the Sunday paper to catch up on any news, especially the bird flu incident as Dan is fretting about it! I nipped outside a few times to get some air and the views leaving the North Island were just beautiful, it was a really sunny day but the wind was sharp mind

A view from the mountain leaving Picton

. As we sailed towards the South Island you could see the snow capped mountain right in the distance. The sea was turquoise blue and you could see all the lush green islands scattered around. There were people on jet ski's and sail boats. After a 3 hour journey to Picton, South Island we decided to head North to the top of the South Island for our first stop to Abel Tasman National Park. The drive was the nicest drive so far and the South Island is just gorgeous. The sun was shining and we drove up and down these windy roads, we had to keep stopping to take pictures it was so nice. We drove through the city of Nelson, we didn't stop here. We drove as far as Kaiteriteri Beach where we pulled up onto a cheap motor camp right on the beach. Tomorrow is labour day so the campsite was packed with families having barbeques and people swimming in the sea and using Kayaks. The weather all the way here has been glorious. We hooked up the electrics and got some information on some walks in the National Park. Later on in the afternoon we took a walk to the ridge of the cliffs where we could see out onto the various beaches and coves. The sun was going down and the sea was clear and calm. As we walked back we reserved 2 seats on the water taxi for early morning tomorrow so we can go into Abel Tasman National Park and do a walk, weather permitting. Just before it went dark we played some aerobie and cards and had a beer. We need to be up early tomorrow to make a packed lunch and catch the water taxi.

Cape Foulwind

Monday 24th October 2005
A day in Abel Tasman National Park

The alarm was beeping at 7.30 am for us to get up. It gave us an hour to get sorted and catch our water taxi. We packed some lunch and drinks then headed for the beach. Today the skies were clear and the sun was glistening on the sea so we were in for a nice day. We left the shores at 9 am and started to head towards Totaruni. We had a few stops in between where we saw dolphins playing, seals and funny shaped rocks (photo will follow). It was really nice. The boat stopped for 15 minutes at Totaruni where we got off for a toilet break. A short ride back South we hopped off the boat at Barks Bay where we would walk the 2 and half hour trail to Torrent Bay. You can walk the whole track in Abel Tasman from the bottom to the top or vice versa but it takes 4-5 days in total and you have to camp in between stops so this was a good option! The walk was lovely, steep in places but we managed to make it back to Torrent Bay in 2 hours and that was stopping for some lunch at South Head on the way which was a 10 minute stop for lunch looking out over the bay. We crossed a huge swinging bridge crossing over the falls river which was the highlight of the walk, especially for Dan shaking it as he was walking across

Dan at the foot of the Fox Glacier

! The sand on some of the bays was pure white and others it was like a real deep mustard colour, it's something to do with the water! It was definitely a sight we didn't expect to see in New Zealand as it was a bit like Fiji.
We made it back to Torrent Bay and caught the water taxi at 2.30 pm back to Kaiteriti. It was a nice boat ride back and we have definitely caught the sun on our faces again. While I updated my travel diary in the afternoon, Dan went off to do some rock walking and take some pictures. We played some cards for a bit and hit the sack.

Tuesday 25th October 2005
Driving to Westport, West Coast

We got up this morning and had breakfast by 10 am. We decided to take the drive over to the West Coast where we would make our way down past the Glaciers towards Queenstown. It was a nice drive through the mountains and we saw a lot more.....sheep! actually we saw a lot of deer aswell. Today is a glorious sunny day and the sky is blue, yey! The drive to Westport was a few hours so we stopped off at Kilkenny lookout, pulled up by the Buller Gorge and made some lunch. It was really nice and we could see where the cliff had been cut away to make way for the one laned road that went through. When we arrived in Westport we decided to stay at Carter Beach, a few kilometres out of town as the weather is so nice. We drove into town first to check it out and pick up some food then took a short drive to Cape Foulwind, a beach coastal track where we walked to see the seal colony. We only walked for about 45 minutes on the track as it wasn't a loop track. The views from the cliffs were really nice

Dan on the swing bridge in Abel Tasman

. We drove back to the campsite in the afternoon and chilled out working out our plan of action from here. We found a small cafe/bar down the road so we took a walk down on the beach front and ate out chicken, chips and beers for $10!! bargain!

Wednesday 26th October 2005
Westport, Driving to Greymouth

Well what an eventful day today! We got up after a good nights sleep we decided we would drive further South to Greymouth stopping off at Punakaiki, the pancake rocks and blowholes, something that is featured in the film 'Walking with Dinosaurs' but I'm not too sure, neither is Dan!??
As we were leaving Westport, there was a road sign to say no fuel for so many kilometres but as Errol had over 1/4 tank (well over) we thought no problem! I was driving and was getting a bit worried as the light came on, then went off, then came on....then stayed on!!! We were relieved when we hit Punakaiki! I went into the Visitor Centre to ask how far to the next town of Greymouth of which the kind lady told me 45km and a 1 hour drive! There was just no way we were going to make it and there was no petrol station here! She said the guy in the cafe next door sometimes had a few litres of emergency fuel that he could sell so I went round the corner to ask, he said he could give us a few litres for $15 so as we had no choice pulled Errol into the cafe car park only to find it was petrol and not diesel!!

Franz Josef Glacier

! We were stuck!! I couldn't stop laughing and we had to call the AA roadside assistance to come out $85 charge, an hour and a half wait and another $5 for him to put about 3 litres of fuel in for us!!!! We also found out we had a water leak, we thought it was something to do with the radiator and we'd have no fuel but guess what...typical English tourists, the water butt was leaking!!!! The AA guy even brought out a trailor in case he had to tow us back! ha ha!
We sat on the bench with a milkshake and a piece of cake in the sunshine waiting for the AA and he was only with us 5 minutes!
When the kind AA guy left, we went to look around the pancake rocks, what we came here for! The next high tide was 6.15 pm and there was no way we were waiting around any longer to see the blow holes! There was a short 15 minute walk to see the rocks, simply rocks that look like stacks of pancakes funnily enough! We left not long after to head South to Greymouth where we stopped to stack up on food and oh, fill Errol up with diesel!
We pulled up and checked into a cheap site that gave free internet access and after something to eat went to check out Shantytown down the road which was really cool. We had a look around old fashioned barbers, hospitals etc and had a go on the steam train and a free go at 'gold panning' which I can only describe as trying to find gold from a stone mix

Good hey?

! You have to keep swishing it round and rinsing out the water and we did (after a while!) find gold! We had it put into a little plastic container so we were well chuffed when we could take it home! We met a lovely couple at Shantytown who are staying at the same campsite as us, so we chatted with them for a bit. We went back to the campsite and I cooked us some tea, Dan went off to see the sunset and I caught up on the last travel pod edition.

Thursday 27th October 2005
Driving to Franz Josef, Glaciers, Southern Alps

Another eventful day....
We were heading further South again today towards the Southern Alps to see the Glaciers, Franz Josef and the Fox Glacier. It was Dan's turn to drive today and after a disagreement about driving yesterday Dan got pulled over in a small village of Hokitika for speeding a few kilometres over!!! He got an on the spot $120 fine so he got a big fat 'I told you so' from me! of which men are never happy about hey!
The weather was okay today, it was much cloudier and it rained in the night so we were hoping it would hold out while we were in the Glaciers

Kaiteriteri, Abel Tasman

.
The couple we met yesterday, Daryl and Clare drove past us on the road down. As we approached the National Park we could see the snow capped mountains even though the clouds were low. We stopped off at the Information Centre at Franz Josef and found out about the walk to the Glacier face. You can pay to hike on the Glaciers but after going way over budget and having to call the AA we are giving it a miss!!! We bumped into Daryl and Clare again, they have given us their number if we want to stay with them for a few days in Melbourne. We drove and parked up at the start of the Glacier trail, had some lunch and walked the 1 hour 20 walk across the dry river bed to the foot of the glacier. It was really nice and we didn't realise just how big the Glacier was. The mountains that were surrounding the glacier were huge and had massive waterfalls. After returning to the carpark, we drove the short drive to the Fox Glacier and did the 1 hour walk to the foot of this glacier here. It wasn't as impressive as the Franz Josef glacier but we managed to get a bit closer to the ice and could see it all melting and rocks falling. We got to cross these cool little streams as well which was cool. Some bad news is the sand flies are back and they are biting into Dan's legs like Mark tucks into his steaks! He won't buy any trousers so is coming home with spotty legs!! After finishing the walk, we decided to sleep over in Fox Glacier tonight so found somewhere to stay, had tea, took a walk to the cool bar in the nice little town and did a short glowworm walk after dark, we took our torches and managed to see more than when we went to the caves in Waitamo

Lake Matheson, Fox Glacier

!

Friday 28th October 2005
Driving to Wanaka

This morning when we got up the weather wasn't too bad, a bit cloudy ut we decided as we were here in the Fox Glacier we would take the short 6km drive to Lake Matheson where on a clear day you can take a walk and see the reflection of Mount Cook in the Lake. We parked and walked about 25 minutes to the lookout and even though it was overcast it was nice. We could see Mount Cook but no reflection. We then went back to the carpark and started driving (again) South to a little village called Wanaka, next to Lake Wanaka! As we started driving (me) it started raining and didn't stop for ages! As we drove through into the moutains again, the weather started to clear up and we could see Lake Hawea which we drove by. It was so nice to see the lakes and good weather in front of us and the snow capped mountains in the rear view mirror. Just before we arrived in Wanaka we stopped at Stuart Landsborough's Puzzling World, it only cost $7 to get in and it was good fun. There was everything from the room of following faces to slanted rooms where we could hardly stand up (you're right Liz it was great fun!) I sat and had a hot chocolate while Dan figured out a puzzle

Pancake Rocks Again!

! We then drove into Wanaka town, managed to have a browse round some of the shops as they were closing up. We got some fish and chips and sat on the shores of the lake as it was nice. We fed the cute little ducklings our leftover bread and after a quick beer headed back to the campsite to do some well needed laundry.

Saturday 29th October 2005
Wanaka, Driving to Queenstown

It's been an absolutely gorgeous day today. We got up and decided to take the walk to the top of Mount Iron, it's 240 metres above the surrounding land and once at the top we could see views of Lakes Wanaka, Hawea (what we drove past yesterday), the Cardrona Valley and the snow peaks of the Harris Mountains. It was really warm at the top and a hard climb! We stopped at the top for a while to take it all in then took the 45 minute or so walk back down to Errol. As it was such a nice day we sat for a couple of hours on the shores of Lake Wanaka eating ice-cream and people watching. We also sat and had lunch here too. We finished browsing the nice little shops around here and around 3.30 pm decided to drive towards Queenstown. We drove through Arrowtown an 'old style' town and then drove into Queenstown itself. On the way over the Kawarau Bridge we stopped for 1/2 an hour to watch people doing their bungy jumps which was good fun. We weren't sure of accommodation so parked up, checked out the information centre, had a drink and pizza then decided to drive 6km towards Glenorchy, it's only 10 minutes out of town and we got some free camping in next to lake Wakatipu. We arrived just as it was getting dark and there was only about 2 or 3 camper vans scattered over a wide area. We took the torches to the loo. Oh my god it was a toilet hut with 2 loos that just went into a huge deep dark pit! I couldn't stop laughing and the emergency loo roll came in handy (thanks Mandy!). We parked right next to the shore on the lake which was just so peaceful. Updates on the nights sleep we had will follow I'm sure!

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Reaching Torrent Bay in Abel Tasman	The dolphins playing at Abel Tasman	The Punakaiki Pancake Rocks!	The Split Rock!
The strange room at Puzzling World!	The view crossing to the South Island on the ferry	The view of Lake Hawea, driving to Wanaka	Us at the top of Mount Iron
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