Christchurch/Wanaka/Queenstown Woo Hoo!

Campervan with children: we are having a great, if not cramped and sometimes exhausting time. We started in Christchurch with the Antarctic Museum - went on a few Haggelund rides, got frozen in the Arctic chill room, checked out the ice, watched blue penguins at feeding time. It was a really good start for all of us. The next morning we drove mostly all day long and ended up in Wanaka at Puzzling World, they had a huge maze and illusion rooms which were fantastic.

Next morning we drove down to Queenstown, the views were amazing, even though there was not a lot of snow up top anymore. We based ourselves at Queenstown for a couple of nights, wandered around the lovely little town, looked at shops, bought some souvenirs and I had my much-anticipated Fergburger (the best hamburgers ever!!). We took the Skyline Gondola up to the top of the mountain right in town and had some great rides on the luge. We surprised them with a visit to the Minus Five Ice Bar and had drinks out of glasses made of ice. The kids loved it! We had a hilarious experience at Underwater World which I cannot really explain here. I think it may go down in history as one of those funny family stories that only we can understand!! I can’t believe the weather here, it’s almost 20C during the day and sunny, a big difference to our first week on the west and north coasts…..

Today we went on the Skippers Canyon jet boat ride, heaps of thrills and very very cold wind, plus driving in a 4WD bus over narrow and windy roads. Great views. Later we took a drive out to the old mining village of Arrowtown and tried our luck panning for gold (which would have been helpful, seeing the amount of money spent so far). Tomorrow we are heading for the East Coast to see some albatross and seals!!

Rainy hike and sunny sea kayak in Kaikoura

The view from our campervan last night was fantastic (snow capped mountains)! However, we woke up this morning to rain and more rain. I was being quite optimistic and thought we should push on and do the 3hr hike around the Kaikoura Peninsula…..oh my god we were soaked within 5 minutes and it never got better….we had a severe case of the crankies when we finished, plus we were freezing cold and soaked to the bone. Then we had an hour to dry off, find dry clothes and voila! The sun came out! We crammed a sandwich down and went off on our afternoon sea kayak tour, which was fantastic. We had a small group, just us, our guide and 3 Irish girls. We paddled around the rocks and the point, and watched the fur seals sunning themselves, watching us! and swimming. On our way back to the beach, the sky blackened and we got massive thunder and lightning. While packing up the sea kayaks, we were soaked again……we are staying in Kaikoura tonight, doing some washing and drying our clothes, and then heading down to Hanmer Springs tomorrow…..what a day!

Kaikoura's baby seals :)

After much debate (due to weather conditions, driving time etc) we decided against backtracking to Abel Tasman National Park (this will have to wait until we come to the South Island again!! They have great 3-4 day treks here!), we headed over to Picton via a very very very windy, narrow, but scenic! route. All through the mountains to Queen Charlotte Sound, where there is a lovely ferry harbour and town. We took full advantage of the rare sunshine and enjoyed fish & chips on the harbour front. Then, on to Kaikoura, the MOST AMAZING town!! Oh. My. God. What a gorgeous scenic drive down the coast: snow-capped mountains, turquoise ocean, black sand beaches…..wow. I can’t say enough about this incredible place. We stopped a few times so I could get my wildlife kick and watch the NZ fur seals playing in the ocean and lounging on the rocks. Later we did a short walk up to a waterfall where - believe me, it’s incredible - baby seal pups swim up the creek from the beach and play in the waterfall lagoon while their mums feed. They are just ADORABLE and I can’t believe you can just walk up to the waterfall and enjoy watching them, for free and without fence guards or anything. I was just mesmerised. Tomorrow we are off on a 2.5hr walk around the point, the lighthouse and to watch MORE SEALS!!!! Then if weather is cooperating, we will be doing a sea kayak all afternoon to see the seals feeding on octopus and other exciting things. What a wonderful day. I love New Zealand!

NZ fur seals and wild coastal scenery!

Greymouth was windy and rainy and cold. We did, however, wake up to sunshine - even if it was short-lived. We drove the amazing coastal road up north and it was rugged and wild. Stopping off in Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks and the loud blowholes was pretty spectacular. Later we stopped near Westport to see a small NZ fur-seal colony, they were just adorable! Breeding season is next month so I imagine lots more fur seals to come…..I just love seeing wildlife. Apart from those 2 special non-rainy moments in our day, it pretty much rained the whole time. We are over it! And drove to Nelson. Tomorrow heading up to Abel Tasman National Park to see if we can do a few walks, or a sea kayak.

Fox Glacier heli-hike, NZ

Spending the night near Franz Josef village, it was freezing cold and pouring with rain, not to mention cloudy. I seriously doubted the possibility of our heli-hike at Fox Glacier down the road the next morning. It was touch-and-go but we did manage to get onto the helicopter and fly into the Fox Glacier, land the chopper, and do a 2-3hr hike around the glacier. It was amazing! There had been snow during the night and the glacier was covered in about a foot of snow, which made it more difficult for the guides to navigate our way around. But they did a fantastic job and we loved every minute! We wore crampons on our boots for extra grip, and used a trekking pole to gauge the depth of the snow in front of our steps. Sometimes the pole went straight through with no bottom in sight! Luckily the guide, Passang always went first. He had been guiding at Fox for five years, and spent a few months each year leading treks around Mt Everest. He was great. The conditions were changing constantly, from sunny and cool to freezing, windy, hail and snow and cloudy. We had our thermals on and we were good. This has been the most spectacular day, I’m stoked we did this. When the sky was clear, it was SO clear and crisp, and the views are just stunning. Yay for Fox Glacier! It’s a shame the weather is so crap on this western coast of the south island of NZ because the scenery is spectacular. We are now in Grey mouth (windy rainy coastal town) and will head up north tomorrow.

Not-so-sunny NZ!

Leaving Christchurch in our SAM Mercedes 6-berth luxury campervan for the West Coast, we were happily driving along in the sunshine and enjoying the magnificent views of the Alps, towering, majestic and snow covered (WOW!). Along the way, heaps of sheep and baby sheep!! And alpacas and cows and baby cows! Sadly, the closer we got to the Alps, the more it rained, and rained, and rained. It was very reminiscent of our adventure last year on the North Island, where it rained, and rained, and rained. We were hoping to do a few short walks at Arthur’s Pass, but the weather was wild. Instead I tried to at least get a photo of the Arthur’s Pass train station (we got in trouble for driving too close to the tracks). It was a long 7-hour day of driving with a few short stops to get to our destination: Franz Josef. Tomorrow we are booked on a heli-hike 28kms further at the Fox Glacier. Although the rain has stopped for the moment, the cloud is hanging over and we can’t even see the views of the mountains. We don’t know if we are going to be able to fly in the morning due to all the cloud and inclement weather…..up early and we’ll see what happens! Am loving being in NZ again, however I must protest the ridiculous internet rates at the holiday parks. WiFi should be free for goodness sake - at the very least, free if you have your own laptop!! P.S. it is fricking FREEZING!