Twizel & beyond

Today I made my way inland to a place called Twizel (pronounced twyzel). This is a small town at the fork of a junction that either takes you to Christchurch or Mt Cook. I opted for Mount Cook! Once on the road, I made my way along lake Pukaki. I have to admit I was absolutely stunned by the colour of the lake. It's a deep turquoise which really shows when the sun is behind the clouds! Apparently there's a suspension in the water that makes it that colour and its due to the run-off from the Glaciers. After stopping to take some photos a familiar bus turned in to the same parking lot as me. It was a couple I met at monkey island a week or so ago and they recognised my car (how could you miss it!). They gave me some advice on where to camp and I took them up on it.

Lake Pukaki


I found Hooker Valley DOC campsite (Department Of Conservation) and parked up. I have to admit this is the best DOC campsite I've come across. It had a cooking area in a hut with running water and sinks. It also had flushing toilets and sinks in the restrooms. Luxury by comparison to some if the others I've seen!!

Dunedin & Aramoana

Today I spent the day driving up the Aromoana peninsula after driving through Dunedin. I mistakenly took a road as a scenic drive (the 86) and ended up driving along the coast. Actually it was quite scary as the road is about 2ft higher than the water line and the whole area seems to be a shipping area with a dredged channel. What's really scary is that you can see all the channel markers as you drive and in my case I could see a large Chinese container ship in the channels dwarfing me on the road.

After my accidental detour I went back through Dunedin. I must admit after being in the country so much I didn't much care for a large, old industrial city and made my way through it as fast as possible.

I made my way up the coast and stopped at shag point. I managed to se some seals but as far as the penguins were concerned there was shag all!!

Summer Hill & Cannibal Bay

Today I carried on north up the east coast. I stopped at a point called Summer Hill. What an amazing view. The beaches are golden the rolling hills a vibrant green and the sky a perfect blue! I got talking to a couple who were riding a Harley Road King (2 up). They were local folk from Invercargil and the friendliest people you could meet. Anyway after talking to Tony & Gladys they mentioned that they were having lunch at a good restaurant in Wangaloa and invited me to join them. I got there a bit after them (since they had a faster vehicle!) and ended up having lunch and a beer with them. As it happens the place was busy and they were under-staffed so Tony & Gladys were still waiting to be served when I arrived. Eventually I got my blue cod & chips! Wonderful, especially with a beer!!

Driving North Through the Catlins


After lunch I carried on and ended up at Cannibal Bay which is a remote beach. I drove about 8kms on a gravel road (I was feeling adventurous after my big lunch) and was rewarded by seeing a sea-lion coming out of the sea!! It looked like a young one and wasn't phased at all by me or the couple of kids playing near by. Actually it let us get quite close to it before getting defensive (when one of the kids hit a ball with their cricket bat!!).

Cannibal Beach - a Sea Lion


Later that night I looked for somewhere to stay and ended up staying in a Wetlands park. Needless to say I ended up in the middle of nowhere with only one other van. It was pretty scary to be honest. That night I got a taste of freezing conditions as a freezing fog had descended on the place. Not particularly pleasant but I managed to weather it out in my sub-zero sleeping bag!

Curio Bay & Slope Point

Sat 14-apr:

Today was spent driving to Slope Point which is the southern most point in the Southern Island of NZ. It's a pretty tough drive! I also ended up helping a German couple push their van back on to the gravel road. Apparently a bus had sped past and forced them off the road into a ditch. They were unable to get traction due to the verge being grassy and slippery. Anyway we managed to rock the car free!

After being at the most southern point I made my way north (duh!!). I ended up in Curio Bay which is a neat little peninsula. The campsite is like a corn maze with little alcoves for camper vans. It make it feel a bit more cozy and private. It also works as a great wind block. I'd advise anyone in this part of the country to stay here for those reasons.

Most Southern Point of the South Island


In Curio I managed to spot a yellow eyed penguin. They live in the bushes which are a good 25 metres away from the ocean. What's really cool is that I managed to see them at dusk (which is when you're most likely to see them). They're pretty hard to see since they blend into the rocks really well. Since I was at a long distance (they're protected) I couldn't get a good photo unfortunately.

Also I managed to spot a load of dolphins the following morning. They were swimming on the other side of the Peninsula. There must have been at least 20 of them and you just get a glimpse of their fins initially. I got my binoculars out and you can see them breaking through the water. Really cool to see them in the wild.

Later on I went down to the beach to see the petrified forest. You get to see wood preserved in rock including the wood grain and sometimes the stump of a tree. It must have been a really fast fossilization to keep them that well preserved. Maybe a volcanic eruption with a fast pyroclastic flow instantly turning the trees to charcoal? Any geologists out there care to answer this question?

Invercargil

I went to Invercargil where I managed to find a scrap yard. The owner (Bernie) was great and managed to help me with fixing my locks and door handle. He actually managed to fully fix one of my locks on the van whilst I worked on the door handle! I managed to fix the other locks myself. Needless to say this wasted the best part of the day. After getting things sorted out I then went to the local hardware store (E Hayes & Sons) to see the original (#35) Indian Motorcycle that still holds the land speed 1000cc motorcycle record. It was the bike that Burt Munroe achieved the record on. I'll post some photos soon, promise.

Later that night I checked into a caravan park so that I could clean up and kick back. I met some Australians who were a great laugh and we sank a couple of beers as the temperature dropped!! They told me that I have to watch the comedy "Kenny" so I guess that's on my list for when I get back!

Monkey island & Milford Sound

Over the last week I've done quite a bit of traveling. I went down from Te Anau to Milford and took my time touring. I have to admit this part of the world is just stunning (I'll upload piccies when I get to an internet cafe - I'm using my phone again!).

On the way down to Milford I stopped at The Divide. This is where the Route Burn trail starts. I decided to take a 3 hour tramp up to Key Summit. The hike up hill was tough but after about 1hr15 I made it the summit (I packed really light). The views were absolutely stunning. Basically there's a glacier and a valley below as well as there being an alpine pond at the summit! Really spectacular views from 950 metres(ish). I'll try and get some photos up as soon as I can!!

I went to Milford and took a boat trip out on the sound. Again the views were really spectacular (this 'is' the NZ I wanted to see). The boat took us out to the Tasman Sea and under some waterfalls (literally!). Again the weather was perfect and the views breathtaking! Actually it's just too much to take in as the scale of the fiords is too great to capture in one visit! Hmmm, maybe I'll have to return!! :-)

Yesterday I left Te Anau (I went back there after Milford) and made my way south. I'm now by Monkey Island which is not too far from Invercargill. I've spent a whole day here today since I'm sick of driving. Actually I was also feeling run down yesterday so I thought I should have some R&R from my R&R!!

Monkey Island


Monkey Island Beach


Monkey Island at Night



Tomorrow hopefully I'll get to Invercargill and see where Burt Munroe lived (the world's fastest Indian Motorcycle). I doubt there will be much there but since I'm here I might as well go.

Te Anau

To answer some of the questions I've had: Yes the holes in the rocks in Cape Farewell do look very similar to Arches National Park in Utah. The expanse of Cape Farewell is not as large though and the rocks are constantly being eroded by the sea so I'm sure it looks different from year to year.

I've made my way from Queenstown southwards. I left Queenstown yesterday after being there for a day. I stayed in a campsite and I honestly felt like it was a 'pack-them and rack-them' deal. Literally there was 2 feet between each camper van. Queenstown is basically the epi-centre of activities in the south. It's surrounded by Bungee jumps, paragliding, skydiving, luges (which I want to go on if the weather is good) and any other adrenaline type of activity you want. They also have coach tours to the Southlands such as Milford Sound and the Fiordlands. Since I'm driving there's no point in me using those trips!

After leaving Queenstown I was really surprised. I left on the SR-6 road and the scenery changed very dramatically. Queenstown is set up in a valley and it has very sharp peaked mountains surrounding it. A very beautiful location and it's obvious why it's popular with tourists. Anyway, as you start heading south you follow the lake out. On the outskirts there's a lot of volcanic outcrops/mountains - I don't know what the proper geological name is. Anyway they are very shear and have ridges down them. Similar to California but more pronounced. They merge onto the lakes and have trees growing in the ridges. I know Mum would love these views! Hopefully the pictures will do more justice than my description.

Today I'm in Te Anau which is the start of the Fiordlands. It's Sunday and I'm hanging out waiting for a trip to one of the Glow Worm caves. I've got a fair amount of time to kill so I'm going to read my book after finishing this blog entry and photo editing session. I plan on doing a Kayaking adventure on Tuesday Morning in the Milford Sound. Hopefully I'll be able to also do a boat trip into the sound itself (I'm not sure if the Kayaking goes the same route so I'll find out tomorrow or the next day.

I have to admit after leaving Queenstown, I now feel like this is the New Zealand that I wanted to see and expected to see. It's just very stunning scenery and it's really hard to describe and I'm sure my photos will not do justice. Hopefully when I get better access to the internet I'll be able to upload some of my videos.

I'm also trying to adjust to the Time here since we've just flicked over to Winter Savings Time (it's all topsy turvey down here!). I think the difference to the UK is now +11 hours. I don't know when Summer Time begins in the UK so that may confuse me as well!

Franz Josef Glacier


Me at Frans Josef Glacier


Fox Glacier


Looking back at Queenstown


A Fiord just South of Queenstown


Lake Te Anau with Te Anua on the peninsula


Looking over the lakes south of Queenstown


BTW all of these photos are available on my Flickr site with higher resolution sizes availble. Please obey the Creative-commons licensing by giving me credit for them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16453589@N02/