New Zealand - a Geographers Heaven!?

We have spent the past 18 days exploring the South Island of New Zealand. After flying into Auckland airport and then boarding a connecting flight to Christchurch, we spend our first night at Kiwi Basecamp Backpackers. It is a small hostel but has a very friendly feel to it. We are recommended a pub, The Brewers Arms, about 10 minutes walk down the road so we try it out. It reminds us of home! I have a lamb shank which is super tasty, the meat just falls off the bone!

The next day we take a walk into Christchurch. We are surprised and shocked by the shere amount of destruction that the earthquakes have caused. Pretty much all of the CBD is in the 'Red Zone' so you are unable to go into much of it. However, they have set up a brilliant shopping district of around 50 shops, cafes and banks known as 'Re:Start'

Just after midday we return to the hostel and get a free shuttle back to the airport so we can pick up our hire car. We have a couple of issues with Nationwide but we soon clear it up and get going with our little Daihatsu Sirion. It reminds me of a Nissan Micra but worse.

We head to the nearest supermarket and fill the trolley with all the essentials. We get lunch, drive a little further down the road to Kaiapoi and eat it by a river. We are soon then heading on to Hanmer Springs where we stay for 2 nights. That evening we spend our time looking at the guides and maps we have, working out what our plan is going to be.

 Whilst we are in Hanmer Springs we do a couple of walks - one is up Conical Hill. At the top you get some great scenic views of the entire area being able to see the mountains and greenery all around. The hill is 549 metres above sea level.

Soon after we are back at the bottom of the hill and on our way to The Waterfalls walking track. This is a 2 and a half hour return walk up to the Dog Stream Waterfall. The waterfall itself is only a 41m drop but it still looks pretty cool. We take our lunch with us and have it half way up!

We spend the evening crashed out in front of the TV watching Avata.

Sunday and we are up early to hit the road to Kaikoura. The journey takes just under 2 hours. Kaikoura is best known for its seal colonies so we head straight to the area where we are most likely to see them. As we pull into the car park there is one close by, rolling around on a rock trying to scratch an itch. We are able to get so close that we almost want to lend a hand!

We take a walk along the coastline, over the top of the cliffs. We are both reminded of the South Downs!

After lunch we head further North and stop at Picton for the night where we relax, have dinner and get an early night.

Monday morning we take the Queen Charlotte Drive to Nelson. It's a road that meanders through the mountains but takes a while to get by! As the weather is a bit grim and we are not feeling too well at this point, we decide to carry on through to Mapua. This is a small coastal hamlet with about 4 restaurants and 2 shops. Is very quaint! We spend a little time here having our lunch and looking around but are soon back on the road for Murchison.

Around 15:30 we arrive and book into a hostel - The Lazy Cow. It is such a 'home away from home' and they give you free cake! Once we dump our stuff in our room we head out for the Buller Gorge Swingbridge.

For only $5 each, Becky and I walk over the Swingbridge and into the Buller Gorge. This whole area used to be panned for gold with many miners living in cottages such as this:

In 1929 a huge earthquake rocked the area and killed 17 people. Today you are able to walk the faultines and you are able to read and see all about where the faultines reshaped the whole area. We walk to some waterfalls where Becky clambers all over the rocks to get closer to the water.

Tuesday morning and we are up and out the hostel for 10am. We had such a nice stay there. We decide that we need to get to Franz Josef so have a lot of driving ahead of us. We stop in some scenic places and grab the opportunity for some pictures. We pass the Pancake Rocks and Blow Holes in Punakaiki so stop there to explore. I don't understand why they are called Pancake Rocks as they look nothing like pancakes! Maybe it is how the limestone has stacked?! We spend half an hour walking around and then make a move onto Franz Josef arriving early evening.

Franz Josef is 'Glacier Country'. You have Mount Cook, Franz Josef and Fox Glacier. We decide that, as we haven't spent any money on activities and not likely to, we would do a Heli-Hike. We turn up at 13:45, get confirmation that the flight will be going ahead and then walk over to the chopper. After a safety briefing and collecting walking shoes, thick socks and a jacket we jump in the helicopter and have a 10 minute scenic flight of the area.

 

The views are magnificent – we climb up into Franz Josef and get to see so much of the glacier with its huge ice pinnacles, the waterfalls and the extraordinary colours. We come to land on the ice itself and surprised by how easily the pilot lands the chopper. We jump out and make our way to the spot we’re instructed as the previous group are loaded in to the chopper to take them back to town.

We are soon shown how to attach our crampons to our boots and we are off walking the glacier with ease. We head forwards and get shown the ice pinnicles, caves and seracs – the ice formations are unbelievable!

Every now and then you hear a rumble up above from some of the ice cracking and breaking away. The flatter part of the glacier that we walked on actually moves 20-30cms a day. The steep slow of the glacier moves 2 to 3 metres a day! It is one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world that you’re able to walk on with the fastest life cycle of 80 years (European Alps is 2000 years!)

We have a great time crawling through some ice tunnels, getting into some pretty tight spaces.

We come back to the helipad and are soon picked up for our scenic flight back down to town. This trip has been exceptional!

Friday 2^nd March we leave Franz and go to Queenstown. We get some awesome views along the way, driving through the Crown Ranges. Our little car struggles to get up the hills – 3^rd gear all the way!

We really like Queenstown and wish that we had more than 2 nights here. In the short time we are there we manage to walk to the top of the Queenstown Range – it’s a very steep climb! The view is spectacular as you can see all the way across the lake and to the crown ranges.

We grab a bite to eat and then jump on the Luges – you get a chair lift up to the start where you get a luge cart. You sit down in it with your heels in the heel groves and you pull the bars to stop and push them to go. It was bloody good fun! We walk back down the slope and back to the hostel.

That evening we get the Gondola back up to the top of the slope and have a buffet dinner. We get to have our New Zealand lamb! After 7 courses, we are pretty full up!

Next morning we are up and moving on to Milford Sounds. We have to drive all around a lake so have over 200k’s to cover. When we get to the area we are welcomed with more spectacular views.

To get to Milford Sound you have to go through the Homer Tunnel. You have to wait for 15 minutes for the lights to change to allow the one way traffic to pass. The tunnel is 1200 metres long and was started in 1935 during the Great Depression. It wasn’t completed until 1953 as they kept hitting water so needed to build tunnels to drain the water. Each April, the locals compete in a race through the tunnel completely naked!

In Milford we took a cruise around the sound. It is 16kms in length and was formed 600 million years ago. When the glaciers melted it flooded the Milford Valley and was named Milford Sound – although it is actually a Fiord so is wrongly named. We are lucky enough to see some Bottlenose dolphins that ride the bow waves!

 

After our cruise we head to Dunedin – we get there later in the afternoon and book into a YHA hostel. The next morning we have a wander around the city and visit the Cadburys chocolate factory. We see a tonne of chocolate come down from a fall and see where they produce 1.3 billion chocolate buttons a year!

We don’t spend too much time in Dunedin and are soon heading on to Oamaru. On the way we stop at the Moeraki Boulders – almost perfectly spherical with some almost 2m in diameter. Apparently they used to lay deep in the mudstone cliffs but have fallen out with erosion.

We also stop at a place called Shag Point where we see some more seals.

The last few days of our trip are more subdued – we are both filled with colds. We head to Lake Tekapo for a night and then it is back to Christchurch where we stay with a friend for a couple of nights. We have a night out in a local bar but chill out for the rest of the time.

New Zealand has been good to us – weather has been predominantly sunny! Just cold! We are looking forward to some warmer climates again!