We got the 1pm ferry from Wellington to Picton. The crossing took 3 hours. When we reached the south the ferry took us through the Marlborough sounds to reach Picton, the scenery was stunning. We also saw dolphins which is always a bonus.
We spent our first 2 nights in Picton in a lovely apartment so Karl could watch the Champions league semi finals first leg, we checked this time that they actually did have ESPN. Picton itself is a pretty little port town but there's not much to do. So after a couple of days we headed to Nelson. We took the Queen Charlotte Drive route which was a beautiful coastal drive. When we got to Nelson we booked onto a quad bike tour and skywire ride for the following day. The quad's were loads of fun. I went on the back of Karl's quad because i knew i wouldn't be very confident on my own. The track we rode on took us up to view point's and through rivers. We had to dodge the flying sheep poo from the quad infront!! Karl got to go on the fun track at the end of the trip so he got to hammer it around a track (without me on the back!!). The skywire is the longest in the world. It is 1km in length and very high. We were strapped into our seats and released down the cable and reached a speed of 90kph. It was great fun, we really enjoyed the day. After all that excitement we set off for Westport.
When we arrived we slept at Carter's beach, it was a beautiful view when we woke up the following morning looking out to sea. We visited a seal colony just down the road at Tauranga Bay. It was lovely to see the seals in there natural habitat, there were lots of babies too which was great. To top it off it was free so that made a nice change.
We continued our journey south to Punakaiki to visit the famous Pancake Rocks. They are limestone rocks which have formed into what look like stacks of thin pancakes. They really were a weird natural wonder, some of them even resembled human features and animals.
From there we set off for Greymouth. There wasn't much to do when we arrived so we just booked into a caravan park for the night and had a shower.......what a treat!!
In the morning we headed for Hokitika which is famous for it's Jade. We had a look around a Jade factory which was interesting but i have to say it wasn't to my liking. From here we headed to Franz Josef.
Franz Josef is a small town overshadowed by a huge Glacier and snow capped mountains. It was raining and cloudy when we arrived so we didn't get to appreciate it in it's full glory till 3 day's later, when the cloud cleared and the rain stopped!! We had a big storm 1 night so we stayed in a motel . Unfortunately within those 3 days Liverpool were knocked out of the Champions League. Bummer. To lift our spirits what better than a 40 min helicopter ride around the Franz Josef and Fox Glacier and Mount Cook. It was stunning. The scenery was out of this world. We also got a snow landing on the Franz Josef Glacier it was brilliant. We got to just over 10,000 feet in the helicopter. There are only 3 of this type of Glacier in the world, the 2 we saw and the other 1 is in Argentina. They are unique because the Glacier's merge into a rainforest. It was a fantastic way to really capture the beauty of the Galcier's to fly above them. After that we drove down to the town of Fox to have a look at Gillespie's beach and Lake Matheson.
Gillespie's beach gave another good view of the Fox Glacier. The beach itself was covered with driftwood. Lake Matheson was beautiful. It is also known as reflection/mirror lake. On the perfect day the Glacier and snow capped mountain's in the background are mirrored perfectly on the lake's surface. We didn't manage to get the perfect postcard picture ourselves but it wasn't bad at all!!
Next stop is Wanaka...............
New Zealand
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