Over the river and thru the woods..

...to cross the alps we go.Last night we stayed in a little campsite near a pretty little lake with tons of biting little sandflies and mossies (mosquitos). They are a fact of life in certain parts of NZ. The route up the pass was very nice with some great little walks to see various waterfalls and strikingly blue pools, dispite an on-&-off drizzle. On the other side of the pass the land is dryer, more alpine looking. We had lunch at Lake Wanaka which is very big and VERY windy. It didn't stop some crazy guys from swimming though, Burrr. The good thing about the wind is it is moving the weather around quickly. No rain on this side. We passed by another big lake with beautiful high mountains than down to the town of Wanaka. Unfortunetly we missed out on the local microbrewery, just closed. But a trip into the local I-site (the really good information site system) and we were able to book a trip to Milford Sound tomorrow. Our new friend Gill (Anita's dear friend) suggested that we stop at the Cadrona Hotel & Bar for dinner. Though the outside of the place looks totally ancient and ready to drop, the remainder has all been redone and it is a totally cool place. We had a great dinner, venison pot pie and steak and a guiness, in the backyard/courtyard. So nice. Then a trip over the highest pass in NZ before we dropped down (almost literally) into the valley were Queenstown is. We met up with Gill who is so charming, and after a lovely cup of coffee and a quick shower hit the sack.

Side Note.

New Zealand has a lot of tropical landscape. It often looks a lot like Hawaii, wth giant fern, mosses,the constant chirping of umpteen millions of cicadas. It also looks alot like a prehistoric landscape, and there is this one bird, I think it is called a bellbird, that sounds so much like the spitting dinosaur in Jurrasic Park. It is kind of erie to be walking along a dense forest path and here its whistle/song. You are just waitng for the ferns to part as you seen the last sight of your life - dinosaur!

Glaciers - pronounced Gla-cee-ers

I have seen glaciers many times in many places but they never seem to lose some magic that they have. The awesome power of tons on ice carving out the rock around it, the unique blue of the water on and from it. The sound of cracking ice. It is a special thing. And these two glaciers, Franz Joseph and Fox are no different. And yet they are very different from each other and any other. We took a walk up to the face of Franz Joseph this morning. A nice trek over the strewn rock debris it has left in its retreat. But we could only go so far, right up to its face. At our next stop, Fox Glacier we arranged to join a tour to actually go on to the top of the glacier. And though the trip to the point where we could get on to its side ( the face is constantl changing and too dangerous) was much more of a journey than we thought (600 steps up, many of whom had definetly never seen a code book - steep!) it was so worth it. After donning crampons we made our way onto the flank through steps cut with an ice ax daily. It is a unique enviroment, especially on a hot summer day as the ice melts more than 100mm a day. (this one also moves about a meter or so downhill daily as it advances instead of retreating). Rivulets of ice cold water, deep cracks, undulating ridges, and all sorts of blue tones from crystal clear to deep turquoise. What an adventure. Tomorrow we cross the Southern Alps.

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.