We have been on the south
island for many weeks now and it has been so intense so I have not
prioritised to write for the blog. Since we had to be in Christchurch
about a week before our departure from NZ in order to sell the van,
we only had about 10 days to actually travel around the south island.
Although it was a bit rushed, we definitely made the most out of it.
The South Island is very
different from the North Island in our experience. It is much less
populated and more wild nature in general. The nature is more
spectacular and it is much easier to find places to free camp (to our
great happiness). The north of the island, as we drove from the ferry
port in Picton towards Nelson, we saw endless rows of wines and the
vineyards where so many we could not see were one started and the
next one began. Our plan was to go via Nelson and drive down the west
coast with it scenic coastline. Roy bought himself a boogie board
and if he could he would have liked to surf the waves all along the
west coast down towards Qeenstown. The beaches in general along that
coast are not safe to swim in, the current is very strong and it gets
very deep right away as you get in the water, so if he lost control
and was swept away he probably could have. Luckily he kept safe and
stayed with me. We had a deal that I would not let him out of site
when he was in the water (we were often the only ones on the beach),
and he would try to keep track of me every so often and come back as
he was moved along the beach by the current. It was well worth
sitting on in the cold wind on the pebbly beach because I have seldom
seen a more shiny and happy Roy then when he got out of the water
with his boogie board.
In the town of Westport,
still at the top en of the west coast, we started to have problems
with our van that altered our rout a little. There was a problem with
the the alternator in the engine. It was Friday afternoon and none of
the garages in Westport could help us so we had to drive to the next
town, Graymouth, and hope for some help there before the weekend. If
we could not find any help, our plan to drive full day Saturday and
Sunday to reach Queenstown would fail and we might not see all we
want to see within the time we had available. 4.15 on the Friday we
rolled into a garage and was met by some lovely local mechanics that
went out of their way to get us back on the road in one piece before
the weekend begun. That was amazing and we were all happy as we
rolled out from Greaymouth that evening.
So we could continue down
the coast, see some funny “pancake” rocks that looked like giant
piles of stacked pancakes. When the tide was high the water bowled
and splashed through eroded holes in the rock and made some amazing
fountain effect. We missed the high tide, but saw a small fountain
and could admire the rocks anyway. A few hours drive down the coast,
via a free camping spot by a lightly turquoise glacier river with
endless swarms of evil sand flies (they are mosquitoes, but much
smaller, and they take a good chunk of the flesh when they bite) that
we had to escape from without breakfast since they would not let us
live, and headed towards the Fox glacier, the second of the two
glaciers available for easy access on the coast. We walked to the
glacier and could see it close up but where not allowed to walk on
top of it since we did not have an authorised guide. I learned that
the glaciers are very slow rivers moving 100.000 times slower than a
normal river, but it is still water making its way to the sea. The
glacier we visited was moving quite quickly for being a glacier,
about 50 cm per day, and that made it very dangerous to be on top of
it if you did not have the right knowledge or tools. It could
collapse at any time and it changed shape any time. It was a mighty
sight and we where lucky for the sun to come out just was we here
about to start our walk back to the van and light up the glacier in a
glorious way.
The further down south we
got the more astound we where with the nature. The mountains where so
beautiful and between climbing up zig zagy roads where our van had
to struggle, we where down in agricultural valleys with setting with
cattle etc. We where lucky with the weather and it was all so
beautiful. Finally we ended up in Queenstown, a town with a young
vibe where the main attraction and activity was adrenalin sports.
Jumping out of air planes, bungy jumps, etc. Roy did an canyon swing
over a deep drop, 109 meters, over a glacier river. (I was on a
platform further away, taking photos and not being able to breath out
of nervousness.) Roy did two jumps, one to proof to himself he could
and the second one to enjoy the experience, he says. We also did a
jet boat trip that was like a roller-coaster ride on the same river,
the river Dart, that Roy jumped over. I walked up a small mountain
and enjoyed a spectacular view and had a chat with some local ladies
on their after work walk. I also did half a day on horseback in the
scenery of the Lord of the Rings filming sites. The horses had also
been in the films, so that was quite cool.
When we had spent a lot of
money and had a lot of fun in Qeenstown we headed towards
Christchurch to sell the van. It turned out to take more time than we
thought. We spent 2 days cleaning and painting the van and by the
time it came to sell it it looked much better than it had when we
bought it and during the time we used it. We made a flyer and drove
around most of Christchurch's hostel to put it up. People called us,
some looked at it but no one seem to want it fast enough so we got a
bit despondent. We ended finding this backpackers car park where we
sat together with a lot of other backpackers trying to sell their
cars and cans and after 2, 5 days we sold it to a couple from Holland
and finally we where free! It took us 6 days to make the van beautful
and sell it. Not much time perhaps, but since we only had 2 months in
NZ, it was quite a significant time for us.
We changed the date for
our flight to Thailand so that we had time to go to Kaikoura for a
few days and swim with the dolphins. It was an amazing experience,
flavoured in my case by sea sickness, but still, it was a very unique
feeling to be amongst 200 wild husky dolphins as they made their
acrobatic jumps all around us. They swam under water sometimes as
close as 10-20 centimetres. An unbelievable experience.
In Kaikoura we also
visited the seal colony and did some off road mountain biking that
was quite tough.
Finally we made it back to
Christchurch and flew to Bangkok via Singapore.
