Lakes, mountains, lakes, winding roads, rain, wind, glaciers, driving, sea, lakes, sun and wine - that pretty much sums up the last 8 days!
We reached Wanaka and thankfully the sun was out... so we decided to spend the day inside at Puzzling World! We've no idea why but it's one of the big attractions aside from the usual Skydiving and jetboating options. It was started by a Brit several years ago and can best be described as a weird concoction of frustratingly difficult puzzles and mind benders - the sort you get in your Christmas cracker but on an adult size scale... oh, plus a very difficult maze on 2 levels!
We then took advantage of the rare sunshine and tramped up Mount Iron to get a spectacular view of Lakes Wanaka and Wahea, and Albert town, plus all the other valleys that have been carved out by various Glaciers over the last many thousands of years.
In the evening before dinner we took advantage of the spa pools and Sauna at the holiday park we were staying at - our choice of accommodation is definitely improving!
Whilst on our epic drives that we've done over the last few days, we've been flashed (by lights, no inspector gadget rain coats in sight) quite a lot by oncoming drivers- we quickly started to realise that they're all also Escape vans, acknowledging us in the same way that truckers do as if they're part of some elite club that no-one else can join! So to fill the gaps in conversation and in between stops for more eye-watering lookouts we've been van-spotting and waving and flashing like idiots at other Escape vans. We've got one or two strange looks, perhaps more so by those that look like they've had a very recent, all-too-common domestic about directions - luckily we've not had any such arguments so far, so we'll keep waving!
Anyway, from fluid water found in lakes to frozen water found in Glaciers - our next stop was at Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers, which are vast and incredible, but unfortunately due to bad weather we couldn't go up to walk along them, so we had to be satisfied with photos in front of them for this trip.
Whilst on the amazing west coast, we also stopped at Greymouth (which is as dull as it sounds) for a tasting tray at Monteith's Brewery (which was a redeeming feature of Greymouth), pancake rocks and blowholes at Punakaiki, punctuated with a night of showers on the beach, and a seal colony at Westport.
In New Zealand we've found the people are friendly (you're ALWAYS greeted with a 'Hi, how are you?'), laid back and incredibly caring, mostly about our experience in their country - but we're most pleased that we've found another nation that also likes to talk about the weather!
We arrived at the Abel Tasman national park in the far north of the island hoping for better weather and we weren't disappointed - blue skies and a strong sun greeted us at our cheapo DOC site at Totaranui beach. The park is New Zealand's smallest but that doesn't take anything away from the seclusion and beauty of its many bays and rolling hills. On Saturday we were taken in a water taxi down the coast past another seal colony, for yet another tramp, this time through the park. But we're none the wiser who Abel Tasman was - apparently a Dutchman who was quite important - answers on a virtual postcard please?!
On Monday, whilst thinking of everyone at work in the UK, we got drunk! But we did it in style, sort of! The Marlborough region is famous for it's wine, specifically Sauv Blanc. So we hired some bikes and along with our drinking buddies for the day (a couple from Jersey who we met at the camp site) we managed to taste our way round 7 wineries, including the world famous Cloudy Bay. We ended the day in the Cork and Keg, a very authentic English pub with Christmas decs and a singing Santa no less!
On Tuesday with sore heads we headed a short way up the coast to Picton, the Marlborough sounds and the Queen Charlotte Drive (anyone know who Queen Charlotte is?!) - our final destination in the south island, for on Wednesday we take the ferry to the north island. We have both loved the south, as many predicted we would, so the north has a lot to live up to.
The Queen Charlotte Drive was a typical rural NZ road - as usual there are the stunning views, but there are also weird and wonderful postboxes dotted along the road side - not only does the postie not have to get out of his van, but rarely are 2 postboxes the same - in our travels we've seen an Irish seal, a robot and a bee made of LPG gas canisters, animals, caravans, cement mixers... with the fresh air, relaxed vibe and stunning views, it's not a bad place to be a postie!
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