So after the whirl wind tour of the South Island with my parents, it was time to meet up with Eyvi and Stacey who were here on their honeymoon. We met up with them at Kaikoura which was only a couple hours drive from Christchurch where we had sent my parents on their way. After some time visiting over some brews we made a rough plan and headed to Hanmer Springs. The drive south of Kaikoura was quite nice along the coast and going through some tunnels.
Kaikoura lookout
We spent a few hours at the hot pools just lounging around. Roberta really wanted to go on the water slides and was able to find a piece of a wristband to get her on them. She convinced the lifeguard she had paid for a wristband but it had broken off. She is quite sneaky like that.
Roberta’s note: The fact they charge you extra for a water-slide wristband is totally ridiculous. The water is running any ways they might as well have me riding down it having a good time!
The Pass
The next morning we headed for Greymouth on the West Coast. It was a nice drive through the pass. We got there later in the afternoon. Eyvi and I decided it would be a good idea to go for a tour of the Monteith’s brewery. It was quite a good deal: 4 beers and a tour of the brewery for $20. Finally something that is priced for us poor backpackers.
Monteiths Brewery
That night we spent camping right on the ocean. Eyvi spent a few hours trying out my surf casting rod, but it was a shallow beach and hard to fish. There was a beautiful sunset over the ocean that night with all the surfers catching the waves. We ate the last of the salmon steaks which were quite tasty. We had ourselves a mighty fine fire on the beach as well.
The next morning we had an appointment for Esther (our van) to get her shock strut fixed so she would pass her Warrant of Fitness (equivalent to our safety). While that was being done , we headed North in Eyvi and Stacey’s campervan to the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks. We also did a small hike on the Truman track down to the beach and then headed back to Greymouth. We didn’t know how long the WOF would take so we sent Eyvi and Stacey on their way down to Franz Joseph and said we would catch up with them later.
Once we got Esther all fixed up, we started heading south. We decided to take a short diversion to the Hokitika Gorge and we were quite happy we did.
The water was an unbelievable turquoise blue color as you can see. Can’t remember exactly why it was that color but it was glacier melt water.
Hokitika Beach
We then met up with Eyvi and Stacey at the Rainforest Holiday Park in Franz Joseph. Eyvi had gotten some free beers for booking our spots at the i-site and we had some free beer coupons from our brewery tour that we could use at the holiday park pub, so we went to the pub for supper that night.
The next morning Eyvi and Stacey got up bright and early to jump out of an airplane at 12 000 feet. There were both quite pumped about the experience after. It was the same place I had sky dived the first time I was in New Zealand. I know, I know what you are thinking. Everyone else keeps skydiving but Roberta and Jared are wusses. Just give us time.
While they were doing this, we went on a heli-hike of the Franz Joseph glacier. Roberta was quite excited for her first helicopter ride and it didn’t disappoint. The views were spectacular. I feel like I keep writing this statement over and over but it just sums up New Zealand.
The ice caves and formations were also quite awesome. There was a bit more blue colored ice on the Franz compared to the Fox. It was another amazing trip.
We met up with Eyvi and Stacey at the Fox Glacier town and headed to Lake Matheson for a small hike. On a clear day without any wind you can get a picture of Mount Cook reflecting off the water. It is the most photographed place in New Zealand. There was a small amount of wind when we were there so we couldn’t get the perfect picture. Oh well.
This was the only place we took a group photo which was silly because it is not even a good one on our camera. After Lake Matheson, we headed to the hot pools in Franz Joseph for a little R & R.
That night we stayed at a DOC campsite near a lake. We had a few beers in between smacking the sand flies.
The next morning we had to go our separate ways. We had to make our way to Te Anau to start the Milford Track the next day. In was unfortunate that we couldn’t spend more time with the newly weds but we had booked the track back in September when we didn’t know when they were coming. It was a great 4 days spent with great friends.
No planning necessary - when you know style!
No comments:
Post a Comment