Because of all this we left 3 hours later than planned and ended up not being able to make it to our planned destination for the night. New Zealand doesnt seem to have much in the way of motorways. The first road we took was one of the highest public roads in New Zealand and the corners were terrifying as we dangled on the edge of a cliff! We stopped off at a little mining village called Cardrona which turned out to be the local bikers stop and have a lovely open fire.
We continued our drive along to Wanaka - again this was amazing scenery but very windy roads hanging onto the sides of mountains. We stopped briefly in Wanaka to take some photos and then just outside Wanaka westopped to have a look at Stuart Landsboroughs Puzzling World which turned out to be pretty cool, housing some of the worlds best illusions, holograms and maze. The tilted room made us both feel sick but there was some real highlights, the hall of following faces and the Ames forced perspective room which is a technique they used in Lord of the Rings and Willy Wonka!
We then drove along the Haast Pass, a mountain pass, stopping at various points along the way including beautiful blue pools and Fantail Falls. We stopped for the night in Haast Township as it was getting dark and went straight to the first hostel we found (actually probably the only one - New Zealands idea of a town in these parts is 3 houses, a hostel and a minimart!
26th October - Got up and had the most expensive cereal and tea ever for breakfast which we had bought the night before from the local supermarket. We tired not to linger too long in the dorm, James had made the mistake of striking up conversation with the other girl in the dorm who turned out to be rather weird and to like collecting rocks a lot!
We continued up the west coast over big mountains and through dense rainforest. Up the west coast it rains 60% of the time but luckily we had got a fine morning. We stopped off a a salmon farm, fed the salmon, then ate some - obviously not the same ones of course but it was the nicest smoked salmon - wonderfully soft and tender!
About midday we arrived at Fox Glacier. We took a walk together up to the face of the glacier and it was pretty impressive! We had both planned to go walking on the glacier but once we arrived it was freezing and raining and we found out the trip was a four hour hike. James decided to book on to the trip and I decided that a nice warm dry car was much more tempting than walking on a big ice block in the rain!
Since Steph didn't go up the glacier, I'm (James) taking over for a bit!
I met the tour party at the lodge and we got kitted up with waterproofs, boots and crampons. The bus took us to the face of the glaceir and we begun our trek through rainforests (rainforests next to a glacier is a very rare thing) and up 800 steps to reach the top of the glacier! It was absolutely pouring by now and we were all soaked. We donned our crampons and walked onto the glacier about 300m bback from the terminal face. The glacier stretches many many kilometers back up the valley but the top is only reachable by helicopter. The sheer scale of the glacier doesnt come across in any photos really but with my own eyes it was awesome. I spent about an hour on the ice before the group begun the 1,1/2 hour trek back down.
When i returned from the glacier soaked through steph had finished her book and was loveley and warm and dry, i tried to make her feel jealous that what i had seen was amazing but i dont think it worked!
We now drove off towards Hokitika, our planned stopoff for the night a few hundred km away. We passed a few very small settlements on the way but the west coast is laregely unpopulated baron wilderness with a mix of wide rivr beds, steep mountains and rainforests. This lack of towns and the fact that today was a public holiday meant that finding a petrol station became a very big problem! We drove for over 150km without seeing a single open petrol station! Night fell and we were driving on the petrol light but with one last stroke of luck we pushed onto Hokitika and after having driven on the light for over 50km we made it! We checked into the second hostel we found (the first was a B&B at 100pounds a night!)
27th October - Back to Steph writing now. We got up early, checked out and headed for a quick stroll along the beach as the hostel backed onto it. James wanted to take some video for the slideshow he wants to make when we get back. Unfortunately there was a slight hilarious mishap along the way. The waves were big but regular and we were writing in the sand close to the shoreline when a massive wave came it. I was videoing at the time and James yelled to run but I could run fast enough and ended up in about a foot of water - with a very wet UGG boot :-( (which is still drying in the back of the car 5 days later)
We left the UGG boot drying in the sun and went into town to visit a glass blowing shop and a Jade carving factory as Jade is big in this area. It was all interesting and very beautful but unfortunately rather expensive so it won't be Jade christmas presents for everyone this year!
We left Hokitika after that and drove across the Island to Christchurch, which is the biggest city in the South Island. When we arrived in Christchurch we went for a wander and saw the Christchurch Catherdral (which is barely bigger than St Peters church!). Actually it was pretty boring as we had no money to shop and theres not a lot else to do in the town except arts and museums!
28th October - We left Christchurch this morning and headed for the International Antarctic centre. We saw lots of little Blue penguins which live in New Zealand and rode on an antarctic offroad vehicle which was pretty violent but very impressive as it floats and can go up incredibly steep inclines! We also experienced a storm room with a wind chill of -18.5 degress. Along the way we picked up a little penguin friend for our travels who we have named Pineapple for reasons even we aren't so sure about (it was a strange move from calling him Kiwi because he was from New Zealand, and the fact that he looks more like a pineapple than a kiwi fruit, as well as that Pineapple rhymes with Penguin)
In the afternoon we headed up the East coast to Picton where we were due to get the ferry to the North Island on the 29th. We were lucky enough to see some seals on the rocks on the way up which was fantastic to see them in their natural habitat!
We decided for some insane reason that to save money we would sleep in the car. We couldn't find a campervan park that was cheap enough as they all charged $30 just to park on a piece of grass, so we just parked up in the ferry car park! Because we had the big 4wd it was fairly easy to put the seats down and there was plenty of room for two. However we forgot about 2 things - 1) boots are made for putting bags in not people, and are therefore very hard, and 2) the temperature here drops to about 6 degrees at night - it was very hard and very very cold, especially when a torential rainstorm blew in during the night!
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