beautiful new zealand
Here I am (finally) in Christchurch. After arriving in NZ on February 3, mum, dad and I traveled around the northern part of the South Island. We left ChCh and headed to Hamner Springs, a mountain town with thermal hot springs! It had 9 different pools- anywhere from 41C to 28C…it was awesome! The next day we headed back to the coast and drove to Kaikoura, a coastal town known for whale watching, scuba diving, seals, and crayfish! The crayfish (or crawfish…) are also known as rock lobster- they are the same size as lobster but with no claws. They’re not too hard to find but the price of one in a restaurant is ridiculous (around $70-90NZD); we bought one at the side of the road, steamed and ready to eat for $30! The meat is really sweet and tender!
After Kaikoura, we headed further north to Picton, where the inter-island ferry goes to Wellington on the North Island. From Picton to Nelson we took the Queen Charlotte drive, it was absolutely stunning. The two lane road twisted and turned all through the Queen Charlotte Sound, up and down hills, in between little harbour towns. We made it to the Marlborough winery area for the night and spent the night in a little studio apartment amongst the vines!
Next up was Nelson, right at the top of the South Island. It was almost like a mini San Francisco, with a beautiful water front and houses perched up on the hillside, complete with small twisty roads! A hotel room was hard to find so we headed further north to Motueka, right near Abel Tasman National Park. We had big plans to go sea kayaking there the following day, but woke up to pouring rain….so we left. We drove across to the west coast and saw the famous Pancake Blowholes-wow! The power of the sea on that side of the country is unbelievable! There is a walkway around the blowholes and along the edge of the coast; it’s hard to believe how much watch get slammed against the rocks there!
We headed further south to Franz Josef Glacier, one of many along the west coast. This is a unique glacier because it’s only 12km from the ocean and sits at the edge of a tropical rain forest! Once you park your car it’s about a 45min walk to the edge of the glacier. The glacier itself is very different than the smooth and wide glaciers that I’ve seen in western Canada, this one is jagged and rough with lots of crevasses. It’s also really dirty near the bottom. Franz Josef is one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world; it changes at a rate of over 1 meter per day. There’s a pretty good size river coming out of the bottom too that runs through a huge rock valley- during the 1960s it was actually a full lake at the bottom of the glacier. The next day we took a guided hike up the bottom of the glacier- it was awesome! The ice is really blue underneath. The glacier is very dynamic- there were countless man-made steps in the ice and even a few bridges across crevasses (I didn’t look down…!). It was definitely worthwhile, even through the boots and ice crampons I wore gave me huge blisters!
From Franz Josef we headed back to Christchurch, across the middle of the island through Arthur’s Pass. It’s about a 3 hour drive from one side of the island to the other but not many roads go straight through because of the Southern Alps running along the middle of the island.
Here are a few pictures from the trip…enjoy!
s.
mom and me hiking through the park that has the longest swing bridge in new zealand!
After Kaikoura, we headed further north to Picton, where the inter-island ferry goes to Wellington on the North Island. From Picton to Nelson we took the Queen Charlotte drive, it was absolutely stunning. The two lane road twisted and turned all through the Queen Charlotte Sound, up and down hills, in between little harbour towns. We made it to the Marlborough winery area for the night and spent the night in a little studio apartment amongst the vines!
Next up was Nelson, right at the top of the South Island. It was almost like a mini San Francisco, with a beautiful water front and houses perched up on the hillside, complete with small twisty roads! A hotel room was hard to find so we headed further north to Motueka, right near Abel Tasman National Park. We had big plans to go sea kayaking there the following day, but woke up to pouring rain….so we left. We drove across to the west coast and saw the famous Pancake Blowholes-wow! The power of the sea on that side of the country is unbelievable! There is a walkway around the blowholes and along the edge of the coast; it’s hard to believe how much watch get slammed against the rocks there!
We headed further south to Franz Josef Glacier, one of many along the west coast. This is a unique glacier because it’s only 12km from the ocean and sits at the edge of a tropical rain forest! Once you park your car it’s about a 45min walk to the edge of the glacier. The glacier itself is very different than the smooth and wide glaciers that I’ve seen in western Canada, this one is jagged and rough with lots of crevasses. It’s also really dirty near the bottom. Franz Josef is one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world; it changes at a rate of over 1 meter per day. There’s a pretty good size river coming out of the bottom too that runs through a huge rock valley- during the 1960s it was actually a full lake at the bottom of the glacier. The next day we took a guided hike up the bottom of the glacier- it was awesome! The ice is really blue underneath. The glacier is very dynamic- there were countless man-made steps in the ice and even a few bridges across crevasses (I didn’t look down…!). It was definitely worthwhile, even through the boots and ice crampons I wore gave me huge blisters!
From Franz Josef we headed back to Christchurch, across the middle of the island through Arthur’s Pass. It’s about a 3 hour drive from one side of the island to the other but not many roads go straight through because of the Southern Alps running along the middle of the island.
Here are a few pictures from the trip…enjoy!
s.
mom and me hiking through the park that has the longest swing bridge in new zealand!
queen charlotte sound near Picton, where the ferry goes between the North and South islands
more pics later- it's taking too long!
posted by steph at 2/17/2006 10:19:00 AM
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