Feb 7/11 3:13pm
The West Coast turned out to be a very quick go. We left Wanaka and drove out towards the coast and the weather wasn't too bad. We stopped in at Fox Glacier and walked to the face which is only about 45 minutes return and it's an easy walk. We drove down to this campsite on the beach near there but it was super windy so we had to keep moving. The townships in the glacier areas are really touristy and thus are busy and crowded and expensive. Much earlier in the trip we had been considering taking a day trip hike on the glacier but after talking to some people about it the tour didn't sound like it would be that great since we've been on mountains and snow before. You don't get to do any of the mountaineering bits (which Dustin was interested in) and you just follow a guide and have crampons on your shoes. So, though we thought we'd stay a night there we kept going up the coast. Got a little takeaway in a tiny town and found a really lovely campsite at a lake. The grass was so lush and comfy under the tent! We had tried to go to another campsite but arrived to find the fire pits and picnic tables under water as the lake had flooded.
The next day we kept moving north and got into Hokitika and Greymouth to find more rain. So, there weren't a heap of things we wanted to do in the area so off we went and got a cabin at the Punakaiki blowholes. It's not so much of a town as a geological feature but since it's a popular stop there have been lots of accommodation providers moving in. The blowholes are of course best at high tide and since we were staying up there that meant we'd have a couple chances to view them. Dustin, however, was getting a little tired of "nerf ball" activities that weren't very adventurous. We went to the visitor centre to find out about a hike to these caves he had read about. Turns out that the area the hike was in had just been flooded the week before - the worst flooding in the last 30 years! The hike included having to cross a river twice each way, lots of slippery rocks and even stinging nettle around the path. I was not keen for that so Dustin went on his own. He said that there were many times where he couldn't even find the trail and almost turned back at one point. He did make it to the caves and he spent maybe 15 minutes inside with two lights and it was even quite dark. You can go a few hundred metres unguided into these caves but there is a bit of a path that you can see. Dustin enjoyed it thoroughly!
We actually met some Canadians while we were in Punaikaki! We honestly could count the North Americans we've met on two hands with fingers left over. A good 80% of other travellers tend to be German and then maybe 5% Dutch and the last 15% would be the rest of the world. So, it was exciting to meet people that were friendly and interesting to chat with. They were from Valemont. So we hung around with them after dinner and went up to the blowholes but as high tide came it was dusk so got too dark too quickly under the cloud cover. The next morning we went for high tide again but the swell had dropped quite a bit so it wasn't as good as the night before but we definitely had the place to ourselves which was awesome because when a tour bus shows up there are so many people and you can't always get a good viewpoint. We had it to ourselves because it was raining out so we ended up being soaked since I made us watch for like an hour. An umbrella was no match for the blowing rain. After sneaking back into our cabin to change into dry clothes, we continued up the coast. The weather forecast said that Nelson was sunny so we went straight there. But the wind was not dying down at all and was gusting around 70km/hr. Not the best situation with a tent. Eventually I made us move to another area of the holiday park that was a bit more sheltered.
So all this was starting to add up and after being battered by too much weather lately we were just in a funk. We ended up changing our plans because we just weren't having a lot of fun. We were supposed to be on the South Island until Feb 15th but we bumped the ferry up to Feb 8th. We cancelled both of our planned wwoofing stops for the north part of the South Island just to have some time in possibly nice weather where we didn't have obligations. So from Nelson we went up to this national park called the Abel Tasman. It has a track that you can hike over 3-4 days and take a water taxi back. We did a day trip where we took a boat ride the full length of the park and then the boat dropped us off to do a 3-4 hour hike and then picked us up where the track ended up. It's times like that where we realize that we are not the average traveller. On the tour we did we were the youngest in the group by at least 25 years! I didn't even think the hike was that mellow so was surprised there was nobody our age. Dustin saw the first live penguin of the trip! It was swimming in a one foot swell but he still spotted it! Overall the scenery was stunning - the water was aquamarine and the forest had some really gorgeous trees. It was smoking hot out though. We got back to our campsite and realized the dry foods had been in the sun for a good part of the day and the sun had actually slightly cooked the eggs! So we fed them to the eels.
Back on the road, we went east and camped at a river and then continued inland to a city called Blenheim which is in a popular wine region of New Zealand. We stuck around there for 3 nights and the first day we rented a tandem bike and went wine touring. It was pretty funny to ride a tandem and most of the time when we pulled up to a winery we couldn't stop laughing. It was sunny out but with a breeze so it wasn't too bad. We got to about 7 wineries and 1 brewery before it was time to take the bikes back. We had planned to have lunch at our first stop but they were all booked out, just for lunch! So, we never really found lunch along the way heh heh. Most of the wineries only served like cheese platters or something light. The fit out the bikes with panniers so you can even buy bottles along the way and have somewhere to put them! For the last few weeks Dustin has been trying to get the bike trucks to honk when we pass and none of them ever do - until you are on a tandem bike pulling on an imaginary horn! haha.
The next couple days in Blenheim were over 30 degrees! We got to another few wineries and went out to the beach one day. Amazingly though, even in that heat the water was way too cold to stay in for very long. So today we got into Picton which is where the ferry departs from to go north. The rain has come in so we got a cabin tonight. We have a few days before a wwoofing stop we set up for a place that makes cheese on the north island. We're rather excited about that! Then we might meet up with the daughter of Lena's friend who has been living in NZ the last few months.
We have heard that Gran, a diligent blog-reader, was a little under the weather recently so wanted to say that we'll be thinking of her and wishing her all the best in recovering - you can travel vicariously through us until you can travel again! :) So if there's anywhere you'd like to virtually see in NZ, let us know and we'll see what we can do haha.
So, our spirits have been lifted a bit after the last week and I'm excited about the new territory we'll be hitting soon! We have been to a bunch of the places that we saw on the South and we will be doing repeat visits to some on the North but definitely finding new ground as well which is neat. Anyways, hopefully I'll find some time to get more photos on here because I know that's what most of you are after ;) but it's hard to say. When we are tenting there seems to be less downtime and less Internet time for things like that. Well, wish us a clear sunny ferry crossing tomorrow! We're hoping for one since we travel during the day and haven't seen the sounds properly yet.
The West Coast turned out to be a very quick go. We left Wanaka and drove out towards the coast and the weather wasn't too bad. We stopped in at Fox Glacier and walked to the face which is only about 45 minutes return and it's an easy walk. We drove down to this campsite on the beach near there but it was super windy so we had to keep moving. The townships in the glacier areas are really touristy and thus are busy and crowded and expensive. Much earlier in the trip we had been considering taking a day trip hike on the glacier but after talking to some people about it the tour didn't sound like it would be that great since we've been on mountains and snow before. You don't get to do any of the mountaineering bits (which Dustin was interested in) and you just follow a guide and have crampons on your shoes. So, though we thought we'd stay a night there we kept going up the coast. Got a little takeaway in a tiny town and found a really lovely campsite at a lake. The grass was so lush and comfy under the tent! We had tried to go to another campsite but arrived to find the fire pits and picnic tables under water as the lake had flooded.
The next day we kept moving north and got into Hokitika and Greymouth to find more rain. So, there weren't a heap of things we wanted to do in the area so off we went and got a cabin at the Punakaiki blowholes. It's not so much of a town as a geological feature but since it's a popular stop there have been lots of accommodation providers moving in. The blowholes are of course best at high tide and since we were staying up there that meant we'd have a couple chances to view them. Dustin, however, was getting a little tired of "nerf ball" activities that weren't very adventurous. We went to the visitor centre to find out about a hike to these caves he had read about. Turns out that the area the hike was in had just been flooded the week before - the worst flooding in the last 30 years! The hike included having to cross a river twice each way, lots of slippery rocks and even stinging nettle around the path. I was not keen for that so Dustin went on his own. He said that there were many times where he couldn't even find the trail and almost turned back at one point. He did make it to the caves and he spent maybe 15 minutes inside with two lights and it was even quite dark. You can go a few hundred metres unguided into these caves but there is a bit of a path that you can see. Dustin enjoyed it thoroughly!
We actually met some Canadians while we were in Punaikaki! We honestly could count the North Americans we've met on two hands with fingers left over. A good 80% of other travellers tend to be German and then maybe 5% Dutch and the last 15% would be the rest of the world. So, it was exciting to meet people that were friendly and interesting to chat with. They were from Valemont. So we hung around with them after dinner and went up to the blowholes but as high tide came it was dusk so got too dark too quickly under the cloud cover. The next morning we went for high tide again but the swell had dropped quite a bit so it wasn't as good as the night before but we definitely had the place to ourselves which was awesome because when a tour bus shows up there are so many people and you can't always get a good viewpoint. We had it to ourselves because it was raining out so we ended up being soaked since I made us watch for like an hour. An umbrella was no match for the blowing rain. After sneaking back into our cabin to change into dry clothes, we continued up the coast. The weather forecast said that Nelson was sunny so we went straight there. But the wind was not dying down at all and was gusting around 70km/hr. Not the best situation with a tent. Eventually I made us move to another area of the holiday park that was a bit more sheltered.
So all this was starting to add up and after being battered by too much weather lately we were just in a funk. We ended up changing our plans because we just weren't having a lot of fun. We were supposed to be on the South Island until Feb 15th but we bumped the ferry up to Feb 8th. We cancelled both of our planned wwoofing stops for the north part of the South Island just to have some time in possibly nice weather where we didn't have obligations. So from Nelson we went up to this national park called the Abel Tasman. It has a track that you can hike over 3-4 days and take a water taxi back. We did a day trip where we took a boat ride the full length of the park and then the boat dropped us off to do a 3-4 hour hike and then picked us up where the track ended up. It's times like that where we realize that we are not the average traveller. On the tour we did we were the youngest in the group by at least 25 years! I didn't even think the hike was that mellow so was surprised there was nobody our age. Dustin saw the first live penguin of the trip! It was swimming in a one foot swell but he still spotted it! Overall the scenery was stunning - the water was aquamarine and the forest had some really gorgeous trees. It was smoking hot out though. We got back to our campsite and realized the dry foods had been in the sun for a good part of the day and the sun had actually slightly cooked the eggs! So we fed them to the eels.
Back on the road, we went east and camped at a river and then continued inland to a city called Blenheim which is in a popular wine region of New Zealand. We stuck around there for 3 nights and the first day we rented a tandem bike and went wine touring. It was pretty funny to ride a tandem and most of the time when we pulled up to a winery we couldn't stop laughing. It was sunny out but with a breeze so it wasn't too bad. We got to about 7 wineries and 1 brewery before it was time to take the bikes back. We had planned to have lunch at our first stop but they were all booked out, just for lunch! So, we never really found lunch along the way heh heh. Most of the wineries only served like cheese platters or something light. The fit out the bikes with panniers so you can even buy bottles along the way and have somewhere to put them! For the last few weeks Dustin has been trying to get the bike trucks to honk when we pass and none of them ever do - until you are on a tandem bike pulling on an imaginary horn! haha.
The next couple days in Blenheim were over 30 degrees! We got to another few wineries and went out to the beach one day. Amazingly though, even in that heat the water was way too cold to stay in for very long. So today we got into Picton which is where the ferry departs from to go north. The rain has come in so we got a cabin tonight. We have a few days before a wwoofing stop we set up for a place that makes cheese on the north island. We're rather excited about that! Then we might meet up with the daughter of Lena's friend who has been living in NZ the last few months.
We have heard that Gran, a diligent blog-reader, was a little under the weather recently so wanted to say that we'll be thinking of her and wishing her all the best in recovering - you can travel vicariously through us until you can travel again! :) So if there's anywhere you'd like to virtually see in NZ, let us know and we'll see what we can do haha.
So, our spirits have been lifted a bit after the last week and I'm excited about the new territory we'll be hitting soon! We have been to a bunch of the places that we saw on the South and we will be doing repeat visits to some on the North but definitely finding new ground as well which is neat. Anyways, hopefully I'll find some time to get more photos on here because I know that's what most of you are after ;) but it's hard to say. When we are tenting there seems to be less downtime and less Internet time for things like that. Well, wish us a clear sunny ferry crossing tomorrow! We're hoping for one since we travel during the day and haven't seen the sounds properly yet.
Ew, I forgot about the eels :-S
ReplyDeleteI hope it was sunny for you guys.
Happy Valentine's Day!!