Nelson to Picton

With our last full day in Nelson, we had no plans. We didn’t quite know for sure where we would be this day so it was a nice day to relax. We got up around 9 and went and walked around town and tried to figure out what we wanted to do. After swinging by the isite we decided to the WOW museum. WOW stands for world of wearable art...so it was quite the show. We saw 30 or so different costumes of art stuff on people. It was really just like weird stuff made into clothes. My favourite was a pair of running shoes made into a bra, it was pretty clever. There were some strange things though, we couldn’t take photos but some of them were very elaborate. There was like a lamp dress, a giant rose dress, a naked dress, some weird alien looking ones. It was pretty fun. Also in the museum they had a classic car collection. They had some pretty sporty old cars, it was fun to see and I took a bunch of pictures. I didn’t know too much about the cars but it was fun to see. We had some more time to kill so of course we went to Hell, I mean if we were going to be murders, killing time and all, we mind as well go straight there. It was a delicious pizzareia, Hell's pizzas. We got a few pizzas and went to have a picnic on the beach. It was a gorgeous day and of course being from Utah, I still love just walking on the beach because it is so rare to me. So we spent some time hanging out and just enjoying the weather before we decided we needed to head to Picton. We took the scenic route through some mountains and valleys until we wrapped back around the Picton harbour to our favourite hostel, Tombstone. We have a little more daylight to burn so we went to the park in the harbour and played around for a bit. Afterwards, we finally made an healthy dinner and did some hot tubbing. It was a nice relaxing evening.

WOW!

Ring off

Ring on

Nelson Beach

Same ferry we took here, coming into Picton Harbour

Picton Harbour

Motueka to Nelson

This day was Alyssa’s turn to do her activity of choice, lucky for her I made a great designated driver because she decided a wine tour was a must do while in New Zealand. Unfortunately with it being early spring, it wasn’t the best time for visiting vineyards but they did have tastings. So along the way as we drove from Motueka to Nelson we stopped at a few different vineyards, what better way to start the day with a 10 am wine tasting, well I mean I can think of a few better ways but I see where they are coming from.  So as we went from vineyard to vineyard the hosts told all about the different wines and how they are made, so I probably know more about wine then most people I know that drink it. It really is quite an interesting process and they do a lot of different things to get the different flavours. So it was a pretty interesting day even while being alcohol free. I did get some pretty tasty grape juice at one stop though. We took a break and went to Mapua, a cute little habourtown. Along the Nelson region, where we were, they are famous for their real fruit ice cream so I got a ice cream cone of it and it was super delicious, although when it comes to ice cream I am not the hardest person to please, but this stuff was good! After a couple more tours we stopped in Richmond at the mall to take a little break and grab some lunch. Josh and I didn’t want to get the fast food at the mall so we went next door and found some pretty tasty looking lunch boxes next door at Pak’n’Save my favourite grocery store. Then it was back to the wineries.  We hit one more before heading to our final town, Nelson. Nelson is a larger city so we spent the evening walking around and checking out the city. My favourite place was a park with a larger cathedral up on top of a hill. It was beautiful. There are really great cathedrals all over this country as missionaries were some of the first people to come to New Zealand to try and settle it so I have really enjoyed seeing the architecture that goes into each of them.

It finally got dark so there wasn’t too much left to see and we decided to go out to dinner as we were in a really city finally and we hadn’t had a chance to eat out in awhile. So we decided on Indian food because it is so good here. I never had a lot back in the states so I really enjoy trying the new things and am learning a lot about the different foods people on this half of the world eat. I got a sort of sampler plate so I could try a few different things and it was pretty tasty.

The weekday nights are pretty low key as could be expected so that evening we decided to finish off our LOTR and watched the Return of the King. We barely made it to the end as that movie is so long and for me personally, I was getting pretty tired with so much travelling. But we watched it and pretty must had to resist pointing at every outdoor scene and saying where we saw that or where it looked like it was filmed compared to where we had been.

Pretending to eat a taco...I miss mexican food!

Lunch boxes!

Vineyard

Nelson Cathedral

Inside cathedral

Crazy as tree!

Wine tour!

Abel Tasmen Sea Kayaking

Ask anyone who has travelled around the South Island of New Zealand and they will tell you seeing Abel Tasmen is a must do. I would know, I asked a ton of people what we should do and Abel Tasmen was always on the list. There is a very popular tramp along the coast with 3 day and 5 day routes along with kayaking and tramping expeditions. We opted to do the sea kayaking because Josh really really wanted to go sea kayaking, and well I can’t say I was too disappointed.

The day got off to a less than perfect start. As tempted as I was to leave this part out because it was a bit embarrassing but I’ll go ahead and tell you anyway. So as previously mentioned, Josh and I spent the night in the car to save some money (now don’t go making an assumptions this is not going in the direction you are thinking of now). Anyway, it was sort of a long night but we stayed warm and got a bit of sleep, not my best night ever though as I still have rather bony hips that appreciate a good soft mattress. But at about 7 am we were woken up to a super obnoxious pounding on the window, that we instantly knew would not have been Marian and Alyssa. So I opened up the door to a rather angry older lady who was the host for the hostel. She was not so happy about us sleeping in her parking lot. Apparently they have a name for this and it is super illegal. It is called “freedom backpackers”, which I thought sounded like a good term being raised in America and all, I love all sorts of freedom, but apparently this was not such a good type of freedom. So she made an agreement with us that she would not call the cops and instead we would just have to pay for the beds we would have slept in for the night. Oh joy, I suffered through sleeping in the back of a Subaru only to pay for it anyway, I guess it only sucks because we got caught, otherwise it wouldn’t have been so bad. They way the lady talked about it, the cops are pretty strict about that stuff and would have fined us a ton of money so I guess we got off easy and she got money for the night as well. So we learned that lesson the hard way. I mean ya, I figured it was illegal but I hoping it was just one of those laws that people don’t really bother enforcing or really care that much about so I guess we won’t be doing that anymore and I don’t think I’ll be doing it for my travels in Australia like I was thinking. But you can stay in campgrounds for pretty cheap, that won’t be so bad when it is warm. So anyway it was a rather bleak start to our sure to be exciting day.

After we got our hostel stuff all sorted out, Josh and I got put in a room with 2 really awkward guys but that wasn’t anything to new to our hostel travel. We finally got packed up and went to get our kayaks. We had just rented a couple 2 person kayaks from a company in Abel Tasmen. They were pretty sweet with all those fancy water tight compartments and spray skirts, river jackets, and life jackets.  Before we hit the water they taught us the basics of rowing and what to do if you get flipped. It was set to be a beautiful day as the sun was really starting to warm up as they took us to the beach to launch us in our kayaks. Josh and I went together and so Marian and Alyssa we in the other kayak. We basically just had about 5 hours to kayak where ever we wanted. We started off heading east along the coast to the split apple rock then back up to Fisherman’s island across from where we launched. The wind and currents made it a little difficult to head up the coast to the west but it would make coming back easier. After a quick stop at Fisherman’s Island we continued another 400m or so to neighbouring Adele Island. We stopped and ate out PB and nutella sandwiches for lunch (always so nutrious on this trip, just kidding) to boast our energy as the rowing was giving us a pretty good work out. There was supposed to be a sea colony on Adele island so after lunch we got back in our kayaks and worked our way around the island and found a whole bunch of baby seals just swimming and playing the water. It was a lot of fun. We didn’t dare get to close but had a good time watching them. At this point it was getting time to head back so we went back across the bay to kayaking along the calmer waters near the coast. While there we could see parts of the Abel Tasman coastal track and I wished that we would have time to do part of it but our tight schedule definitely didn’t give us enough time do it but the kayaking was a worthy substitute. Along the coast there were massive cliffs, beautiful beaches, all sorts of vegetation, and even a few beach homes that I plan on buying when I get rich. Along one part we were enjoying the scenery when a seal came out of nowhere and decided to swim alongside our boat. This little seal was hilarious! He would swim all around and under us and then come up like he was going to touch the boat then suddenly swim away and he was fast! We named him Pancho after Josh’s Spanish name. He would do jumps out of the water and jump up rocks then back in the water. It was super entertaining. He stayed with us for awhile and it was a lot of fun. Finally we met back up with Alyssa and Marian as we had gotten separated by back Adele island. They had managed to get stuck on a sand bar in the bay just outside where we were to return, it was extremely shallow where the tides had come in. We finally decided to call it a day and return to the beach where we were being picked up. It had been a fantastic day with the sun out shining so bright in the afternoon I was so glad I had put on sunscreen. The water was a bit cold but not too bad with the sun to keep you warm. The park was absolutely beautiful and really felt like well preserved wildlife. We felt kind of like Maori travellers looking at the coast of the south island for the first time on a warm sunny day.

                After a long day on the ocean, we were ready for a relaxing evening. We made up a nice dinner that we ate by the fire and hung out in the TV room until it was free for us to jump on and watch the next film in the LOTR saga, the two towers. After rolling their eyes at us for doing the typical thing and watching LOTR a bunch of other people joined us. But wow it really is so incredible to see that movie and realize I have seen those same backdrops and even the same areas. This land really is picture perfect and even better first hand.

Punakaki to Motueka

So I can’t help but notice my blogs of this trip are getting shorter ha ha. Guess the mass blogging is getting to me, doing this all after the trip has been a bit tedious but we really did have a lot of fun and do a lot of cool stuff. Anyway....

It was a pretty low key morning as we headed to Motueka with not much planned for the day. Motueka was going to be our home base for our Abel Tasmen National Park. The drive was again, just gorgeous. It was about 3 hours just through a windy road with hairpin turns with thick bush (rain forest) on all sides. We didn't see the coast for most the drive as we cut through the top corner of the island. When we arrived we went to the isite (travel guide centre) and they gave us some good tramp ideas. We had also not reserved anywhere to stay for the two days we would be there so we found a hostel, which isn't hard in the winter so we weren't to worried. We decided on a short tramp in Abel Tasmen to Harwood’s Hole. It is the 2^nd largest sink hole in the world at 300m deep. They don’t have the hole roped off so you could get right up above it. It was so deep you couldn’t see the bottom and being on the edge was pretty scary. But we were careful and I was really wishing we has some repelling gear...and that I could remember all the anchors and stuff for how to repel ha ha. But it was an easy tramp (as natural as that sounds to say here I can’t help but try and think of how it would sound 3 months ago...easy tramp ha ha sorry immature moment J, really though it means hike). But it was a nice relax day after the exhaustion of travelling really was starting to add up and we needed our energy for the next day. We did pass a few places that our guide book said was where LOTR was filmed but we couldn’t find the exact areas but you can really tell the scenery is similar. So we went back to our hostel and made some dinner and watched a movie. That night it was my turn to sleep in the car wish Josh, so it was bit uncomfortable, but not too bad and just barely long enough with the seat down.Wow record short post ha ha, although maybe it is better this way...all the details were getting muddled.

Howard's Hole

View of Motueka

Glaciers to Punakaki

With not much to do in the Franz Josef we hit the road early. It was my turn to drive again and I was pretty excited. It was just an absolutely gorgeous drive but everyone else fell asleep, they really missed out. It was a highway along the west coast. The road was surrounded by lakes, valleys,  beaches, thick dense forests and just off to the east were the Southern Alps with the largest mountains in New Zealand all covered in snow. It was just such a wide range of beauty all vibrant and full of life.

On our way we stopped in Hokitika, the Jade capital of New Zealand. Jade jewellery is extremely popular here but a little too expensive for me. Then it was on the Greymouth, finally a real city with grocery stores and cheap gas stations. We took a short break here to get groceries and fill up, we looked up when the high tide was to make for ideal conditions for our next destination.

At 3:30pm just as the tide was at its highest we arrived at Punakaiki pancake rocks and blowholes. As the waves crash in they shoot water vapour up through big holes and it looks like a whale’s blowhole but it only happens at high tide so the water can reach the holes. They rocks are all made by tons of layers and look like a stack of pancakes.

It had been a long driving day but after seeing the rocks we finally made it to our hostel in the little town of Punakaiki. There wasn’t much to do and we were feeling a bit adventurous so I have no idea whose idea it was because it had been freezing all trip but we decided to go swimming in the ocean. It is still early spring here and had been raining all day but somehow they talked me into it. It was freezing! Only Josh got in all the way but the beach we went to actually had some really strong currents and the waves were huge so it wasn’t super safe to go out deep so we got in, got wet, and got out. Then back to the hostel to warm up and play some monopoly, which Alyssa thoroughly kicked our butts in, but it was good time in our cozy cabin hostel.

Pancake Rocks

Cool rock formations, there is chief on the right and a bunch of different things within it

Pancake rocks!

Oops...

COLD!

More Pancakes

Blowholes in the rocks...unfortunately you can't see the water vapor

Big blow whole but again unfortunately you can't see it

Pancakes!

Swimming beach? hmmm...

Wanaka to the Glaciers

With no place to be this morning it gave us a chance to get a little more rest. We had our Wheatbix and got on our way. Along the way we were able to stop at some really stunning lookout places over the coast. We finally arrived at our first destination, Fox Glacier. After a quick lunch thrown together from whatever we could find at the only general store in the area we headed up to do a tramp up to the glacier (by the way we do “tramps” here instead of “hikes”, it is not a bad term that is just what they call it here). It was about a 1 hour return hike to a lookout platform  in front of the glacier. It was pretty spectacular so see just a giant frozen sheet going all the way up the mountain but in reality it really was just kind of a huge frozen hill with some crevices, dirt, and rocks. It is shrinking pretty fast though and they had maps of where it used to be and it is definitely disappearing quick.

Then it was off to the Franz Josef glacier, about an hour further north. We started our tramp down an hour long trail. The trail was fairly windy and even though we sort of felt like we were going in the wrong direction we figured it was just around about way of getting there....well until we came to the road we had driven to get there and then we realized we had been going the wrong way the entire time. So we walked back up the road to the car park and started again, this time in the right direction and took a shorter route because it was starting to get dark. We made it to another lookout spot and took some time to check out the glacier. It was pretty much the same as the other one but maybe a bit bigger.

As it got dark we headed to our hostel because there is never much to do or see in these small towns after dark. When we got there we realized we were missing at least one bag of groceries and my bag from the bungy with my video, bungy rope, and ipod. We have no idea where they went, if we left them someplace or if they were stolen. I called everywhere we had been to no luck. So I was pretty upset as it was a major loss and most off all I wanted my bungy video. But I talked to a rep from the company I did it with and they said they were upload an electronic copy online for me and even throw in the pictures for free because they felt bad that my stuff and had gone missing. So it was wasn’t all bad but I still lost a few valuable things and was pretty upset that day. But there wasn’t much else I could do.

That night we stayed in the “Rainforest retreat” hostel in the town just outside Franz Josef. It was not the most impressive hostel that we had stayed at but to save some money we decided to try and take turns sleeping in the car. So Alyssa and I stayed in the hostel while Josh and Marian stayed in the car in true backpacker fashion.

Lake Hawea

The travel crew in from of lake Hawea

Lake Hawea again :)

River on the side of the road with lots of rocks :)

Waterfall on the side of the road

Along the road on the way to the glaciers

Fox Glacier

Maybe one of the coolest places I saw ever! Peter's pool that we saw when we were lost going to Franz Josef

Franz Josef Glacier