Pancakes anyone?

No not for breakfast, pancake rocks. Today we are heading south along the west coast. So after a quick visit to another mountain lake (beayiful but buggy) we drove along these basically empty roads past farms of all sorts in these nice river valleys. And a great river too. I'm sure it had great fishing and rafting/kayaking by the looks of things. As we got closer to the coast the low clouds decided to wash us abit. But just as we got to Pukaiki it lifted and we got to check them out. Really cool layered rocks, carved by the surf over thousands of years. Then a bit of lunch down on a beach and a bit of sunning (the clouds moved back in just as we were heading back to the van) before we drove down to the Franz Josef Glacier. We are hoping for a clear day tomorrow for some exploring, though we were teased by a few distant glimpses of snow capped peaks thru the clouds. Good times.

Abel Tasman

So this morning we are heading out on a kayak tour, which means we had to get up a bit early. But no worries, we have some really good muesli from the market. The markets are really nice, and they have a real wide variety of foods. Some are the same as home some are quite different (very limited on the mexican food products). Anyways we headed on over to the kayak place, got booked in and the took a bus ride out to the beach area where we got on a water taxi boat with our kayaks. There is a whole bunch of these and they run them down this concrete ramp into the water. It's funny to watch these farm tractors pulling boats with people sitting in them. Part of the reason that they use these tractors is that they launch at high tide and pickup at low tide. And since they have the biggest tides in NZ here, and the bay is quite shallow it is close to a quarter mile difference. So what about the kayak trip? Awesome! Really outstanding bays, cool guide named Rohie, ans some nice young folks from Germany and one from Japan. We maybe could have gotten to visit a bit more bays and such but the japanese girl and her german boyriend were first timers and it took them abit more time. It's all good. And 4 hrs on the water is a good bit. In the early evening we filled up at the market the drove up into the mountains and spent the night and a beautiful lake.
(sorry no pics from kayaking we used an old fashioned waterproof film camera)

Pictures!

Crossing to the south island.

This was our last morning on the North island for a bit, We woke up a bit earlier than usual and went for a walk on the beach, then packed up and headed down to Wellington and the ferry. There was a big line of cars, trucks, campervans and even train cars lining up for the crossing. It was interesting looking at all the different syles of vans and talked with a older couple from Yorkshire, England who are also very much enjoying their campervan experience. At first the ferry seemed to really be rolling and pitching, but once we entered into the straight in settled right in. We have been blessed with exceptional weather. And they even showed the Liverpool - Chelsea match from last Sunday which I missed. Go Reds! After a 3 hr ride we docked on the south island. Then a few hours on a twisty turny road along the numerous inlets of the Marlbourgh Sound with isolated beaches and huge tidal plains, very beautiful. Now we are in Motueka and the doorstep of Abel Tasman Nat'l Park where we will be kayaking in the a.m.

Tongariro

We took a really nice hike/walk this morning. Headed out thru a scrub prarie into a moss covered beech forest, along a beautiful stream and out upon a cool waterfall. And the another even bigger one. Very nice. We decided not to go go on fartheras it would be a 4 hour round trip extra. Instead we headed back to the road and then drove up to the end where there is a ski resort. And then we took the chair lifts up. Sandra was a bit nervous at first (we were way up in the air over jagged rocks), but she did really great. We were up at about 2000 meters with bits of snow packs. Had a coffee at the highest cafe in NZ, then hiked up the mountain a bit more. Had some fun sliding down the snow we had come up. Killer views but a bit cloudy. On a clear day you could see a long long way. We'd like to come back and do the crossing some time. In the late afternoon we got on the road for a bit of a jaunt (4 hr drive in light rain) down towards the welligton area where we will cross to the south island tomorrow.

Lake Taupo

This morning we started out, after a nice little rain shower during the night, with a jaunt to see Huka falls. It is a wild churning mass of white water with a 7 meter drop at the end. And supposedly some people kayak off it. Crazy! We also visited a geothermal area called Craters of the Moon which has a really nice path that goes around thru steam vents and boiling mud. Like yellowstone in ways but a lot different vegetation. At times it even looks like the moors in Scotland. This whole area from the Tangariro area all the way out to White Island north of the Bay of Plenty is an active geo thermal area. The last sizeable eruption was only in 1975. After a quick tour of the city of Taupo and a lunch on the shores of lake Taupo ( a huge lake which is a volcanic crater ) we spent some time at a natural hot springs area. They had some really hot pools and then also some big pools that were nice and warm. Very relaxing. It felt good to just veg for a bit as we really have been on the go alot. This evening we are spending in the shadow of the 3 volcanos that make up the Tangariro Nat'l Park area. There is some really serious mountains here. We had thought that we would try part of the Alpine Crossing here but realized that we aren't nearly set up for it Oh well, some other trip...

Blue Lake

Well that is the English name at least. Today after first running some errands in Rotorua, we headed up to the lake area nearby. We took a really nice hike/walk around the lake and stopped halfway to have a bit of lunch on a little sand beach and then lounge in the sun. It was really nice to just relax and watch the ducks and clouds float by. Luckily the spot we picked must have had a type of bush that the cicadas didn't like. There are places were they are so so loud. And often the vegetation is very tropical looking, like Hawaii. In the evening we drove south towards Lake Taupo and stayed alongside a beautiful river at a place called Reid's Farm. They donated the land to be a free campsite for campers/backpackers/etc. Very cool. The river in this area is famous with kayakers and their is even a slalom course like you see in the olympics. Unfortunetly there wasn't anyone out while we were there.