Sceneries and adventures

Sorry for not having posted anything for more than a week ... We have been busy doing all kind of adventures and enjoying the amazing scenery on the southwest part of NZ's south island.

Last Tuesday, we drove from Greymouth down to Franz Josef, the small mountain village next to the stunning glacier with the same name. We wanted to do a walking-tour on the glacier itself, and had read that they took of at around 1 PM. Therefore, we left Greymouth pretty early and arrived in FJ at 12.30, well in time (we thought). Unfortunately, all tours were full and they adviced us to wait until next day. However, after some great begging from my side, we were allowed to tag along right away. And I really mean right away, we got 5 minutes to go back to the car to change clothes and bring water och food. A bit stressy ... but we made it! As usual, it was a beautiful day weather-wise. After a 2 km walk along a river, we arrived at the glacier. It was kind of grayish at the bottom, but once we got up on it the colors turned to blue and turqoise. It streched 12 km up the mountain, and we walked at most half a km up of it, but it was still a great experience! Quite a feeling, standing on a 120 m thick chunk of ice!



The next day, we stopped to have a look (from a distance) at the other large glacie in the area - Fox. It's even longer, 15 km, but we only saw about a 5th of it ... Still, awesome products of nature! Too bad they are all slowly melting away due to global warming ... We also did a 1,5 hour walk around Lake Matheson. After having seen post cards of it (and the Alps in the background), I just had to go there.


And it was just a nice as we had expected! But I think I snapped just a few photos too much ... Tina got a bit tired at the end ;=)

We then drove a couple of hours before stopping at the camp site just after the Haast pass, stopped by both the darkness but also heavy rain. That night, it rained a lot and it felt like the winds should turned the van, but made it through the night. We got off early (couldn't sleep anyway) and avoided some fallen trees (or more like branches) on the road on the first miles. After a relaxed breakfast stop in Wanaka, we continued to Queenstown, the no 1 adventure city (or town) on the south island. We had heard that it was quite touristy and didn't have that high expextations. But we were pleasently surprised! A pitoresk little town next to a beatiful lake and some impressive mountain peaks (for ex. The Remarkables).

We wanted to do another adventure - sledging. It's like rafting except with sledging you're actually in the water instead sitting in a raft. With the help on a floating pad under your arms, you're are guided down the roaring river. Since we hadn't booked it in advance, there were no spaces left for the next day. Therefore, we decided to drive out to Milford Sound (fjord land, think Norway) and to take the sledging on the way back through Queenstown.

The drive from QT to Milford Sounds is 300 km and was expected to take around 5 hours (that is, if you don't do any stops). We drove the first 200 km to Te Anau pretty fast (not much to see) but then enjoyed the scenic drive from Te Anau out to Milford Sound with plenty of stops on the way. For ex., we slept at a camp site next to a stunning river



and did a superb 3 hour hike up to Key Summit with the amazingly beautiful Alpine Walk on top of the mountain.



We had absolutely superb weather and you got see for miles and miles in all directions!!! Probably my best hike ever!

Well in Milford Sound, we went out on a boat cruise in the fjords (the ONLY thing to do here). Awesome feeling to be on the water next to these huge mountains! You feel pretty tiny! After checking out some seals, we turned back along the fjord and admired some great water falls at the end.

The next day, we drove back to QT and finally did the sledging. Another day with great weather, but that didn't helped much when we first dipped our toes in the river - freezing!!! But after a few minutes in the water, it wasn't that bad anymore. After a few warnings and instructions from the guide, we were off down the river (or at least all but Tina). She didn't really made it out of the Eddie (calm, rotating water next to the river main flow), but after some help from the "back" guide, she were out as well! We went down a 5 km stretch of the river called Roaring Meg. However, this time a year, she didn't roar. But it was more than enough for us!



We did the 5 km twice, and the first run was more of a practice run in order to enjoy it a little bit more on the second run. And you really needed a practice run, it took some time to learn how to manover in the river. The first run was a bit scary, since it was more like being flushed down the river than actually floating down it (under control). The second run was much better, and then we also got to try to ride a standing wave. Not that easy I must say ... ;=) But we really enjoyed it all, although a warm shower at the would have been nice. Now we ended up a little bit cold, smelling rubber ...

The last couple of days, we've hanged around the great, turquise lakes of Pukaki and Tekapo. Unbelievable scenery in this region!!! Today, we're heading for Christchurch in order to catch the flight to Sydney on Friday! We are now started to feel a little bit tired of NZ (and especially the camper van!) and we really can't wait to get to Australia, where a new country and new adventures awaits!

Take care, all!!! See you!