I am so in love with New Zealand. Such a beautiful country. Don't get me wrong, Wellington is amazing and I feel like its my second home, but the South Island is gorgeous!
We left Thursday July 8th early-ish to get to the ferry for 12. Unfortunately it was delayed until 3pm due to crazy winds. We took the opportunity to walk around Welly and I showed kirk the Parliament (beehive) and Te Papa, pretty much the only sights I knew of. We bought a camp stove, fuel, pots, mugs, cutlery and other really useful camping gear. We made it back to the ferry just in time for it to be delayed even longer, but we were allowed to board anyway. We got free hot chips (fries) and milo to keep us happy. An awful movie was showing too. The ferry pulled out of the harbour around 430ish and I felt seasick pretty quick, so I feel asleep and woke up a few times but slept 99% of the trip. Arrived in Picton just before 8pm and we drove to Blenheim to find a random spot to camp. Slept beside a winery that night and left the headlights on to put up to tent. Oops, it made my car battery die. Good start! We decided to wait until morning to deal with it. Coldest night of my life, I had 2 sleeping bags and wore all my winter gear and still froze. All night cars drove by and honked at us, so annoying!! In the am we flagged down some cars but no one had jumper cables, so we walked to the nearest house and the owner helped us out. We went into Blenheim to see what there was to do...nothing. We found a chocolate factory and got some free samples and then drove back to Picton. Where I bought some jumper cables, just in case. From there we drove the Queen Charlotte Drive, amazing views. We did a walk along the Queen Charlotte Track, maybe 3 hours or so, it was great. So beautiful. We made our way to Nelson next, I thought it would be a happening town. Nope. So we got groceries and more gear from Warehouse and drove to a winery outside Nelson to sleep. Again flippen froze. Drove to Marahau the next morning, gateway town to the Abel Tasman National Park. We did a short day hike, maybe 3-4 hours again. Decided to pay the extra 12$/person to camp outside a hostel in the town. It was awesome, great little kitchen, hot showers, and a roaring fireplace. I swear it was 35 degrees in there, everyone had a red face! The Stray bus people were there, it was nice to socialize a bit. One guy even cooked us sausages and potatoes! Yum. Met a hilarious Greek guy who asked me what 'oh snap' meant and I explained it as an expression like sweet as. SO he goes 'ooooh, sweet as snap"! Sooo funny. The next morning we set off on a 3 day kayak trip with our rented tandom kayak. Overnight we stayed in 2 huts, Anchorage and Bark Bay. The weather was utterly perfect, all blue skies and sunshine. The first night we met some lovely kiwis and americans who made a big fire and shared their weird flavoured marshmallows (called pink and white but taste like cherry) with us. And some whittakers chocolate. YUM! We visited a glow worm cave that night and the park ranger checked our hut so we were glad to have paid! She showed me how to find scorpio in the stars and we saw venus. Sweet as. We were told the hut was heated, but it was only the kitchen area that was heated and it was shut off at night. I only brought one sleeping bag and flippen froze. Just for something different...
The next day we explored the seal colony island, baby seals were sooo cute. Got some good photos I hope. We stayed at the Bark Bay hutt next, we arrived at low tide and had to walk for aaages to get in. But it was nice enough. Made some dinner and went to bed at like 8pm. I'm turning into an old lady! I awoke around midnight shaking and shivering like nobody's biz. It was awful. I actually had to go outside to puke, but took me so long to get out of my sleeping bag that I didnt make it to the 'bathrooms'. Sorry peeps, TMI I know. The next day I still felt awful and I'm pretty sure I had a fever, I could hardly paddle so we took breaks every few minutes. I was useless though, luckily we didnt have far to go. At lunch we stopped on an island and I stumbled off the kayak and onto a rock where I fell asleep instead of eating. SO unlike me. We got back to Marahau and debriefed and got on our way. Next stop was Westport, but we arrived late so we just slept in the car. The next morning we went into the 'town'' and used internet for free at the libs (library) and then drove to Greymouth. The drive was beautiful, snowy moutains, lush native bush. Amazing. We stayed at Village Backpackers since we needed showers pretty badly. We camped outside the hostel actually, but used their facilities. Cost us 15$/person. Not bad. We made granola bars, granola and watched Wayne's World. Soooo funny. The hostel was awesome, empty and quite but had free bikes and kayaks for hire. Didnt take advantage though. The next day we drove to Arthurs Pass, highest elevation town in NZ. We did an unreal hike called Scott's trail, which was suggested by the very informative lady at the i-site. it was just what we wanted, climbed past the treeline, and ive never seen such gorgeous vistas. Pretty much was losing my mind it was so beautiful. It took us about 3 hours to do a 4-6 hour hike, because we are just that fit. We saw the devil's punchbowl from the ridgeline. so cool. We slept that night at a tiny campsite that was free and made a sweet little fire and watched Step Up on my laptop. Chatum Tanning!! we are sooo roughing it. hahaha.
The next morning I was pretty grumpy because we were woken up by the train and cars going past every 5 mins. We booked it to town to do out dishes in the bathroom and then drove to Hokitika where I got to do my bone carving for 85$, pricey yes, but so worth it. I did it in a studio where I was the only amateur, usually its alll backpackers. So I literally did all the carving myself, I was so scared I would screw up and break it, but I dropped it just once when I was buffing it. All good though. We went to the local fish and chips shop (or fush and chups as kiwis call it) to try some whitebait, which is famous in the area. but it wasn't in season and would have cost 150$/kg when in season. Yikes. we orded a lunchbox meal which was 2 fish and some chips, or so we thought. Waited for it and got fried chicken. re-read the sign and realized the 'lunchbox' options were just chicken not fish. and we both hate chicken skin so peeled off all the batter and skin and crap and ate some chicken. dark meat though.... ewww. we will have to try again and order actual fish. We drove to Franz Josef after and signed up to do the day hike the next morning at 8am. We parked at a lake where it blatantly read 'no camping and no parking'and broke both rules. We did the hike today and it was amazing. Not as challenging as Scott's Trail, but I loved it. We are staying at a shanty hostel, in an actual room tonight as we have camped the last 10 nights and deserve it. My face is sunbrunt again (burnt it kayaking too).
I can't even begin to describe how gorgeous and amazing and beautiful this country is and my photos will never ever do it justice. So I highly rercommend you get here asap and see it for yourself.
On to see Mount Cook tomorrow and then Wanaka for some snowboarding!
Party time! Excellent!
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