1600 miles later, in Te Anu we have been pretty busy getting around the South Island of New Zealand. We are still having an absolutley amazing time ,around every corner there is something new to see and explore and we still keep getting surprised by this amazing country.
Our next desintation after leaving Te Anu was Milford Sound, which is based on the South West Coast. This only took about one and a half hours by car from Te Anu, a lovely drive which consisted of mainly windy roads through various mountain passes,which had dramatic views with really high peaks.
We had yet another experience with birds (as we keep mentioning on our previous blogs) whilst waiting to go through a mountain tunnel we were decended upon by 3 Kea's they were certainely friendly knocking on our car window with their beaks. I am glad it had been raining and my window was wound up.
The only way to view the fjords were by ferry, which took about one and a half hours.
The trip by water through the fjord was good and the scenes were once gain dramatic and unlike anything else we had ever seen.with lots of huge waterfalls runing from the mountains. Everything was on a large scale one of the peaks being 1696 meteres high, which is one of the highest mountains in the world to ascend from the ocean.
This is a big tourist attraction in the South, there was many coaches and visitors from Queenstown.
Whilst travelling through the gorges we saw a colony of fur seals and a couple of sea lions, just layed on a rock. We also spotted a penguin
We planned on possibly staying at Milford Sound for one night, however there was not much choice of accomodation, so we decided we would travel to Queenstown , which was a bit of a journey for one day as it took about 4 hours to get there. A very busy day indeed.
Wow it was worth it, first impressions of Queenstown on arrival looked great with mountains,very scenic and beautiful houses on hills overlooking lake Wakatiou. This was a town which looked like it had a bit of night life something we have missed so far in New Zealand. We are ready for a good night out on the town, just for a change!.
We found a great holiday park, walking distance from the town centre. It was one of the top 10 (which is a company in NZ) The cabin we hired was great, it had all the amenities we needed.
We did a couple of great walks in Queenstown, Mount Crichton loup walk was one of them, which was certainely worth it for the views, and the other was a walk in Arrowtown not so strenious ,but it had much history, based around chinese settlers.
Over our fours nights, one of them we hit the town,we had a great night, some really good bars my favourite was Cowboys.
We were gettting quite settled in Queenstown, we experienced snow while we were there, which apparantley was quite unusual for that time of year, it just made the place look even more beautiful. We found it diffficult to drag ourselves away and feel we would love to go back there one day. Probably the next time will be to ski, as there are about 3 ski slopes within short distances of each other.
We then travelled North through the mountains towards Haast, which was the start of the west coast going North. This area is renowned for being an area of outstanding beauty, with lots of lakes and mountains. This area is called Central Otago. Haast was not our sort of town, it was a bit souless, very remote. Hardly a car or a person on site, the beaches were very close to the holiday park, but very difficult to access.
Before visiting our next destination we had a whistle stop tour to St Franz Josephs Glacier, and Fox Glacier.
We did a short walk which took about an hour so that we could get a close view of the glaciers.
Next we travelled to Hokita. It was famous for being the first original port on west coast, the town was a bit run down with nothing much to see. We again only stopped for one night to get our head down, as we still had a lot of miles to do before getting to the top of the North Island.
The following day we travelled to Murcherson. This town was in the Mighty Buller district, which is famous as a meeting poing of the 5 rivers. The Mighty Buller is the biggest river on the West Coast, one again a very impressive place to visit.
Murcherson was another one night stop, we probably could have stayed there a bit longer, as it was a nice place, but we decided to travel further North across to Kaiteriteri. Kaiteriteri had the most spectacular beaches some, of which were secluded , they all had golden sands which felt like dust in your hands. All we needed now was a bit warmer weather as New Zealand had experienced a bit of a cold spell, which was unusual for their Spring. We managed to get a holiday park overlooking this beach Kaiteriteri.
Kaiteriteri is famous as the Gateway to the Tasmin National Park, which was once again famous for walks and wildlife. The houses overlooking the beaches on the hill sides were all designer houses, which were absolutley gorgeous. Even though we loved the area we didn't stay for long as we still had a few miles to cover before heading back to Christ Church, our final destiation in South Island.
Our next destination was called Mapua, on Tasmin Bay which is the North on the Ruby Coast. We found a campsite on the beach with tennis courts, a sauna, easy fishing access and a cabin on the beach, we stayed for, we were ready for a rest from travelling again. We stayed at Mapuas for three nights, the weather was pretty good during that time so we managed to do a bit of sun bathing, but plenty of suncream after we were caught out whilst skiing.
That particular night when camping we did not get much sleep, due to the cold, the noise of the sea, the highway and the railway which was situated on the other side of the highway. There were about three or four trains passed during the night, which were travelling to Christ Church.( All this time we had never seen any trains!)
Our next destination is to head off to Christ Church, but once again to break up the journey we stayed at a campsite, called Gore Bay Camp, it was once again by the sea, but alot quieter so we managed to get a bit more sleep. A lovely journey as the country side views were beautiful with lots of winerys on the way, unfortunatley we did not have time to stop
Our next desintation after leaving Te Anu was Milford Sound, which is based on the South West Coast. This only took about one and a half hours by car from Te Anu, a lovely drive which consisted of mainly windy roads through various mountain passes,which had dramatic views with really high peaks.
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| Milford Sounds |
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| Milford Sounds |
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| Views haeading towards Milford Sounds Mountains with waterfalls |
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| Kea birds landing on the car whlst waiting to go through the mountain pass What is it with us and birds? |
The trip by water through the fjord was good and the scenes were once gain dramatic and unlike anything else we had ever seen.with lots of huge waterfalls runing from the mountains. Everything was on a large scale one of the peaks being 1696 meteres high, which is one of the highest mountains in the world to ascend from the ocean.
This is a big tourist attraction in the South, there was many coaches and visitors from Queenstown.
Whilst travelling through the gorges we saw a colony of fur seals and a couple of sea lions, just layed on a rock. We also spotted a penguin
We planned on possibly staying at Milford Sound for one night, however there was not much choice of accomodation, so we decided we would travel to Queenstown , which was a bit of a journey for one day as it took about 4 hours to get there. A very busy day indeed.
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| Milford Sound |
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| Colony of Fur seals spotted whilst travelling by ferry through Milford Sound. |
Wow it was worth it, first impressions of Queenstown on arrival looked great with mountains,very scenic and beautiful houses on hills overlooking lake Wakatiou. This was a town which looked like it had a bit of night life something we have missed so far in New Zealand. We are ready for a good night out on the town, just for a change!.
We found a great holiday park, walking distance from the town centre. It was one of the top 10 (which is a company in NZ) The cabin we hired was great, it had all the amenities we needed.
We did a couple of great walks in Queenstown, Mount Crichton loup walk was one of them, which was certainely worth it for the views, and the other was a walk in Arrowtown not so strenious ,but it had much history, based around chinese settlers.
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| Queenstown views-Lake Wakatiou. |
Over our fours nights, one of them we hit the town,we had a great night, some really good bars my favourite was Cowboys.
 |
| Steve pretending to fight with a bear |
We were gettting quite settled in Queenstown, we experienced snow while we were there, which apparantley was quite unusual for that time of year, it just made the place look even more beautiful. We found it diffficult to drag ourselves away and feel we would love to go back there one day. Probably the next time will be to ski, as there are about 3 ski slopes within short distances of each other.
We then travelled North through the mountains towards Haast, which was the start of the west coast going North. This area is renowned for being an area of outstanding beauty, with lots of lakes and mountains. This area is called Central Otago. Haast was not our sort of town, it was a bit souless, very remote. Hardly a car or a person on site, the beaches were very close to the holiday park, but very difficult to access.
Before visiting our next destination we had a whistle stop tour to St Franz Josephs Glacier, and Fox Glacier.
We did a short walk which took about an hour so that we could get a close view of the glaciers.
 |
| St Franz Josephs Glacier |
The following day we travelled to Murcherson. This town was in the Mighty Buller district, which is famous as a meeting poing of the 5 rivers. The Mighty Buller is the biggest river on the West Coast, one again a very impressive place to visit.
Murcherson was another one night stop, we probably could have stayed there a bit longer, as it was a nice place, but we decided to travel further North across to Kaiteriteri. Kaiteriteri had the most spectacular beaches some, of which were secluded , they all had golden sands which felt like dust in your hands. All we needed now was a bit warmer weather as New Zealand had experienced a bit of a cold spell, which was unusual for their Spring. We managed to get a holiday park overlooking this beach Kaiteriteri.
 |
| Kaiteriteri. |
Kaiteriteri is famous as the Gateway to the Tasmin National Park, which was once again famous for walks and wildlife. The houses overlooking the beaches on the hill sides were all designer houses, which were absolutley gorgeous. Even though we loved the area we didn't stay for long as we still had a few miles to cover before heading back to Christ Church, our final destiation in South Island.
Our next destination was called Mapua, on Tasmin Bay which is the North on the Ruby Coast. We found a campsite on the beach with tennis courts, a sauna, easy fishing access and a cabin on the beach, we stayed for, we were ready for a rest from travelling again. We stayed at Mapuas for three nights, the weather was pretty good during that time so we managed to do a bit of sun bathing, but plenty of suncream after we were caught out whilst skiing.
As we were now needing to head South on the east coast towards Christchurch we still had a failry few miles to do so we did a one night stop on a Department of Conservation Camp site, which was just off the highway. but was situated next to the beach which had waves 15 ft high, this was the most dramatic coast line we have seen since travelling around New Zealand. It made the drive interesting, we could not manage to capture photographs to demonstrate the wildness of the sea and the noise. It was pretty windy when arriving at the campsite, we would have booked a cabin but they were full due to a bank holiday.
We would have had a very long night but some really nice Kiwis,(Bill,Gaye and their friend Chrissie offered for us to join them for a drink around their Gazebo. They were very organsied with wind breakers and a woodburner alight. So we thank them for their hospitality keeping us from the cold winds.
That particular night when camping we did not get much sleep, due to the cold, the noise of the sea, the highway and the railway which was situated on the other side of the highway. There were about three or four trains passed during the night, which were travelling to Christ Church.( All this time we had never seen any trains!)
Our next destination is to head off to Christ Church, but once again to break up the journey we stayed at a campsite, called Gore Bay Camp, it was once again by the sea, but alot quieter so we managed to get a bit more sleep. A lovely journey as the country side views were beautiful with lots of winerys on the way, unfortunatley we did not have time to stop
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| Countryside views on the East Coast driving back to Christ Church |
Now back in Christ Church, we have just taken our car back to Pegasus and getting ready to fly back to Auckland tomorrow (Wednesday 15th November) where we will be meeting Ken and Francine, our friends from Darlington who will join us to tour up North around the Auckland area (This is an area we have mostly avoided except Eden Park when going to the Rugby, this seems so long ago now but the memories of our inept performance in the first half against the French,still lingers on !!) We think we are due for some warmer weather, but as we are slowly getting used to the weather forecasts, this climate is very unpredictable, just like back home in the UK. South Island has been a great experience and our road trip took us to some fantatic destinations, some of which we have not even had time to put in our blog. However the memories of them will stay with the two of us forever. One thing we are sure of though is that we have overed a very worthwhile 2400 miles on South Island and are getting to know the people and the culture even better. Now for our last two weeks in New Zealand we are to explore new parts of North Island with the Gees and both of us are really looking forward to it !
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