Pedigree Bumblebees

The West Coast wasn't all it was cracked up to be, people had said good things about it but for us the weather let it down, the scenery was hidden and the towns looked dull. We made it down to Jackson Bay first, after crossing over the Haast Pass, only to find the recommended crayfish shack (Pretty much the only building there) closed for the day due to power supply repairs in the area. The bay itself was typically picturesque so a few photos later we were on our way up to Fox Glacier where we stayed for the night.

In the backpackers at Fox we chatted to a few of the other people, one chap was there for a park ranger job and also to train for the 'Coast to Coast' race in which he's participating. This race is from Greymouth on the west coast to Christchurch on the east......a little matter of 240 kilometers with mountain running, kayaking and biking sections. Apparently the top guys do it in a bit over 11 hours and he was aiming for between 12-13 hours - bit of a show-off if you ask me :)

The next day we walked up to the terminal face of Fox Glacier in freezing rain, stopped to take a single picture and then headed back because it was so bad! Walking up to the face takes you through the melt water basin, past streams strewn with big chunks of ice and the whole thing is only 30 mins walk from dense coastal rain forest.....! That's something we have noticed in NZ, the landscape and vegetation changes dramatically in very short distances. 

Leaving Fox we drove up the west coast highway, bypassing Franz Joseph glacier because for that one you really need to be going on a tour to get up on top of the glacier and we didn't want to shell out for that with the weather being the way it was. We got up to Greymouth, which is an industrial town very close to the recent NZ mine disaster, and headed back inland on the Lewis Pass across to Hanmer Springs.

When we arrived in Hanmer Springs we inadvertently drove onto the front of their Christmas parade through town.......it was the first time we had seen any real evidence that it was the Xmas period and, in the hot and dry hills, it looked totally out of place to us.  Hanmer is famous for its natural springs (surprise!) but we spent the next day mountain biking in the surrounding hills - there is a large forestry and logging industry in NZ and the mountain bike clubs take advantage of this by utilising the logging access tracks and the cleared areas to create trails. This time round was much better than the biking in QT, the trails were in better knick and it was easy to find our way round. I filmed Nina on a great run; she flew down the drops and swooped round the berms.....only to find out later that i hadn't pressed 'record'......nice work eh...

The actual hot springs centre was pretty crap to be honest, all the pools were man made and even the 'rocks' were plastic. We were expecting a slightly more natural set-up but it was still good for a relax in the different temp pools, they range from 36 - 41 degrees.

Kaikoura was our next stop and here we walked the coastal track to see the resident seal colonies. The sky at sunset on our night there was bizarre and lit the whole town in a red glow. In a bar that night we got chatting to some other travellers and somehow got on to the subject of bumblebees. They are very prevalent in NZ and apparently were introduced by the British years ago who are now collecting them again to take back as the ones here are the 'purest breed' anywhere....

The next day when we went to pick up our car from the car park a chap approached us to ask if it was ours and 'did we know what had happened that morning?'. We didn't, but it turns out that earlier that day a rubbish truck had burst a tyre coming round the bend, done a 360 degree spin, slammed into the two cars next to ours, smashed through a few huge wooden flowerbeds and then come to rest about 3mm from the front of our car!!! By the time we got to the car it had all been cleared away so the only evidence was the missing flowerbeds and a very thin film of soil covering our car….lucky for us!.  The hostel we stayed in had some very odd staff, one girl was English and stared at you with a look that said 'I'm a little bit mental and i might kill you in your sleep tonight...', we nick-named her 'Single-White-Female'. The other live in help was a tiny Japanese girl who was basically a living Pokémon character.

From Kaikoura we drove up to the Marlborough wine region, home to all the NZ Sauvignon Blanc everyone drinks these days. Our backpacker was a lot better than the last one and was run by an old couple who gave us the low down on all the local vineyards. The weather wasn't great so rather than hire a couple of bikes to get round the cellar doors (as is the way to do it apparently) we took the car. While we were there we picked up a few bottles and a bit of bubbly for Christmas day and had a spot of lunch - all very civilized. The next day we headed on to Able Tasman National Park on the north coast of the south island.

Abel Tasman was established in 1942 is 22,530 hectares and is renowned for its golden beaches, sculptured granite cliffs and coastal track.  As there are no roads in the park apart from walking tracks one of the other ways to see the national park is via a kayak.  We decided to give this a go and booked a day trip which included three hours of kayaking and the rest we spent on our own walk through the park.  Then at the end of the day to get you back they take you on a water taxi, which run up and down the bay's for most of the day.  The place is stunning and although there were a fair few people visiting it you can still find your own secluded spot on a nice sandy bay.  It felt very strange but at times like you could have been on an island in Thailand 15 years ago...

By now it was the 24th December and we had decided to spend Christmas in a place called Nelson, mainly because it fit with our plans, no other reason in particular, but we had heard it was a nice place a bit arty and a nice feel to it, so we headed over from Abel Tasman.  We had booked in to a backackers and they said they were going to do a bbq and everyone chips in with a salad or desert so we thought it might be fun. We woke up on Xmas day to sun and heat, which felt strange in itself, and took a walk to the 'Centre Point of New Zealand' which has great views over Nelson and the harbor. It was odd being here for 
Xmas because, whilst it is predominantly Christian country (at least the south island) and they do celebrate it, it is not anywhere near as in your face. We popped our bubbly and spent most of the day playing backgammon and having a few drinks in the sun, with some bbq food - all very strange but a nice day.

We were going to drive out to Marlborough Sound for our last couple of days on the south island but we couldn't sort out any accommodation so we checked into a different place in Nelson and chilled for a couple of extra days, gave us (me) a chance to watch some of the cricket and see the Aussies get a complete pounding - get in! The new place was really nice, very clean and even had its own bar downstairs. The only downside was a big mental Aussie guy staying there....we first encountered him when he came into the lounge when i was watching the cricket and started ranting about how 'the Muslims had threatened to bomb the MCG' and how they should 'all be strung up', he left the room ranting how soon they will have 'darkies walking the streets' and that 'we don't wann'em'.....we nicknamed him Son of Chopper.

We spent our time in Nelson booking up some stuff in advance and generally relaxing. Bumping into SoC the next morning he tells us without prompting that he had a really bad night and had been ill, hallucinating and vomiting, and that he was a nurse of all things! Mental. Nelson was our last stop on the south island before we took the ferry across the Cook Straight to the north island. The south island had been awesome; we both massively enjoyed our time there and were genuinely stunned by some of natural scenery as well as doing some excellent activities.

The ferry leaves from Picton on the south island but the road to it from Nelson was closed due to flooding and mud slides so we had to do a huge detour in order to get there via the only other road. Even on this road we came across some stopped vehicles in front of a long stretch of flooded road, the water was running off the hill and across the road with some force, whilst Nina was a bit apprehensive driving through she managed it and we made the ferry in time.

The ferry takes you to Wellington on the north island (strangely though, you are no further north when you get off than when you got on). We'd only left ourselves seven days in the north island so we didn't hang around here for too long, just one night and enough time to go out for drinks/dinner and then visit the Te Papa museum and send some post home the next day.

Our main activity for the north island was the Tongariro Alpine Crossing and we'd been looking forward to it ever since we didn't do the Routeburn Track near Queenstown. Our base for the hike was Ohakune, just south of the national park, which is actually a ski resort in the winter and is pretty quiet in the summer. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is touted as one of the best day hikes in the world (big claim eh!) and certainly in NZ. We booked onto a 6am shuttle bus which took us up to the start of the track to try and get ahead of the crowds as it is a popular track. The hike is amazing and the views stunning. It takes you up and over dormant volcanic craters and passed still active ones. Visually the main volcano is Mt Ngauruhoe which has the stereotypical conical shape (used for Mt Doom in Lord of the Rings apparently), it is possible to climb to the summit but we didn't have the time.

There are a few lakes on the way, the most impressive of which are the Emerald Lakes. These lakes are super green and are found at the base of the still active 'Red Crater'. It took us 7 hours in total to complete the crossing, at the end we were picked up again by the shuttle bus which dropped us at the local pub for a well-earned pint.

We spent New Year’s in Lake Taupo which is just north of the Tongariro region. It's a real holiday destination for Kiwi's and it shows but it's got a good atmosphere and some nice places to eat. We decided to splash out a bit and checked into a nice hotel for a couple of nights. We somehow bagged the best room in the hotel and spent the afternoon relaxing round the pool, popped some bubbly, had dinner on our balcony with a great view over the lake and mountains, and watched some of the fireworks to see the New Year in.

From Lake Taupo we drove up to Rotarua. On the way out we stopped at Huka Falls and also the Aratiatia Rapids. The water flow to the Aratiatia Rapids has been blocked by a hydro dam so they are dry except for certain times each day when the dam’s floodgates are opened. We knew they were due to open at a certain time but we were running late, so as we rounded the corner in the car and saw them we also noticed a countdown timer which had reached just less than a minute to go. In front of the crowds already there to watch, Nina slammed the car onto the hard shoulder just over the bridge (Ignoring the proper car park) and we jumped out and legged it to the bridge view point just in time to the see the gates open!!

Rotarua is famous for the natural thermal activity and the associated smell of sulphur, it certainly smells pretty bad in a lot of places but not everywhere. It is also known for its mountain biking in an area called the Redwood Forest, so we spent a day there on apparently some of the best trails in NZ, great fun. We skipped the thermal areas, as they felt a little commercialised and after having been to Iceland decided against spending the cash. As with a lot of things on the north island we'll have to go when we come back.

It's the 4th Jan now and we are in Raglan, a small surf town on the west coast. We left Rotarua and were driving to Auckland when we decided it would be nicer to spend our last night here instead. Whenever we have mentioned Auckland to anyone since arriving in NZ, there has not been a good word said about it. It kind of sealed it when we phoned ahead to book a hostel only to be told not to park anywhere near it as our windows would get smashed in! Tomorrow we head off to catch our flight to Chile........