Finally after weeks of putting it aside, doing other more important stuff for school, I've found time to write report from south island. Here it is and it's not short.
And with the report goes the photos as well, they were on for long now, but here is the link.
Day 1:
Wanganui - Wellington
Our journey started in the morning from student flats in Wanganui. We turned our car in direction of Wellington and start driving. The weather was nice and the roads weren't too full either.
Just few kilometers before Wellington we've seen the sign for a car museum and stopped there to check it out. As it turned out it was well wort it. The car collection was so big, nice and well preserved. They had cars from beginning on. And not only cars they had bikes and motorcycles as well.
After two amazing hours we hit the road again. We came in Wellington in the afternoon and first checked where our ferry for south island is leaving from.
After we found the place we went in the center of city and payed a visit to city museum and private gallery. We walked along few roads in the center and decided to go to botanical gardens that were just on the hill in the city. We spent few hours there to walk several trail and stopped at interesting spots.
We still had some more hours to spent before our ferry departure. And we went to cinema to check what they are rolling.
After the movies we went to the beach and finally ended at ferry terminal where we waited until 2am for boarding.
Day 2:
Picton - Kaikoura
After a nice sleep on the ferry we started our way on the south island. From Picton, where the ferry came in, we went in direction of south. We still didn't get enough sleep and that was the reason that after few kilometers of drive we stopped for a short rest (2 hours). After we were awake again we continued our journey. We stopped at the salt works at Lake Grassmere for a while. Soon after that we the road hit the coast. The views were amazing.
In the afternoon we came to the end of first days traveling in Kaikoura. Since there were still several hours before the sunset we went for a walk along beach to get to the seal colony. The walkway was great and led us from cliffs to low beach. And yes we also encountered seals there. After the walk we planned to pick a tent somewhere around, but sadly weather was getting worse and it started to rain. So we searched for a hostel and found one. We cooked our meal and went to bed.
Day 3:
Kaikoura - Christchurch - Banks peninsula - Christchurch
Our destination for this day was Christchurch and Banks peninsula. That meant a lot of kilometers of driving and so we started early in the morning. We continued on coastal road for several more kilometers and finally turned inland. The scenery completely changed. The grassy hills were just amazingly beautiful.
In the early afternoon we came to Christchurch and found our hotel there. We were staying in the middle of the town in a 4 star hotel with buffet breakfast.
After we checked-in we continued our journey to Banks peninsula to the south-east of Christchurch. The scenery there was again amazing. We did two short walks on the peninsula and returned to city late in the evening. We still didn't have enough and so we went out to see how the city looks at night.
Day 4:
Christchurch
After a really great breakfast we started the sightseeing in the city. We walked through the center. We payed a visit to the art gallery and city museum. The museum was really nice, especially the kids area. They had collections of birds, fishes, arctic expeditions, early settlement things and more. After museum we went to park. A really big park in the middle of the city and in that park we went in the botanical gardens, where they had closed environments of rain-forest, desert and few other environments. They also had nice collection of meat eating plants and cactus.
After that we went to HitLab, where they had demonstrations of all the things that they were currently working on. It was amazing. They are researching cutting edge technologies of augmented and virtual reality. You can find more on their website (here).
After we went back to our hotel we went for an American (Wisconsin) burger and back to hotel. There was again long drive waiting for us next day.
Day 5:
Christchurch - Mt. Cook Village
In the morning there was quite a lot of traffic in the city and it took us a while before we came out of the city. We started our trip to the heart of south island and so we went inland to the southwest of Christchurch. At first we had bad weather with rain. But we were nearing our destination and came to the really nice places the weather started to get better and better. We passed Lake Tekapo and stopped at the Mt. John observatory near there. The center of NZ astronomical observations. After few more kilometers we reached the biggest lake in NZ, Lake Pukaki. And that was the first time we've seen it - the highest mountain in NZ, Mt. Cook - Aoraki. We drove along it and onwards to the Mount Cook Village. That was close to mountain.
After we finished our lunch and picked the tent in the camp, we went for a walk for a short walk on a track nearby. It was amazing. The mountains around were so beautiful. After we came back I stayed outside for another hour laying on soft grass, enjoying a nice view at the stars.
Day 6:
Mt. Cook Village - Dunedin
The night was really cold and windy. The wind got worse and worse. And we woke up in windy morning with few snowflakes falling down on us. After we had breakfast in a cooking shelter we went for a short walk to one of the other tracks in the area. As every day there was long way to go this day also. We drove past Pukaki lake again, enjoying it's gorgeous color and size. We were heading for the east coast again and we were passing really nice landscape on our way. Somewhere along the road we stopped to take a look at very old Maori drawings on walls.
We passed several more lakes, all of them really beautiful. After several kilometers along the coast we stopped again to see very famoues stones: Moeraki Bolders (Kaihinaki). These are spherical stones that grow under surface. The see was washing the land away and that is how they got exposed.
We continued our path south and hit Dunedin soon. We didn't stopped and were continuing our drive to the nearby Otago peninsula. We went to Albatross colony shelter, the only albatross nesting area on mainland in the world. The weather was getting worse and we stopped at private backpackers place which as run by very nice old man. After the dinner we went out for a walk to see seals or penguins, but unfortunately we didn't encounter any. But I did manage to lose my glasses. We went out later to search for them but without luck. Later on we went for a chat with owner and he told us many stories that he lived through.
Day 7:
Dunedin - Milford Sound
After a really nice sleep on Otago peninsula we went to search for my glasses again, and this time we were more lucky. I got them back. We also found out that there was first snow of the year in the nearby hills. After search and rescue mission we went to Dunedin and stopped for a short time to check our e-mail account and get some news from the world. This day we had the longest part in front of us. Our goal was to get all over from east coast to the west coast in Fjordland.
We only stopped for a short time in Gore to get more food for our journey. After that we were driving for hours and hours. We encountered now on one of the passes. The first encounter with Fjordland was in Monapouri next to the lake with same name. And it was just B.E.A.utiful. Few kilometers later we stopped in Te Anau to get some warm clothing like gloves and hats. Te Anau is next to big Lake Te Anau that is surrounded wit hills and mountains. So nice. It was already getting dark and we still had lots of kilometers in front of us. So we filled out tank with gas and went on. The night caught us on the way. and we had amazing view at the sky full of stars and moon. And on top of that there were mountains all around us. It's just indescribable. We came to Milford sound at 10pm and got ourselves a room at backpackers. After a good dinner we went to the Milford sound (fjord) itself and walked a short path there. We also went to a really nice waterfall, where we wouldn't be able to in day.
Full of excitement and pleasure we went back to backpacker and took a well deserved sleep.
Day 8:
Milford Sound - Somewhere south of Queenstown
As every morning we put some food in out bodies and start adventuring. First stop was Miford sound. Completely different then at night and still amazing. We started our way inland again. First we stopped at some really nice dawns that created amazing things out of rocks. Wild structures. We stopped for another short walk with magnificent view at glacier in the mountains. Few more kilometers back inland we stopped again. This time for a longer walk. We went for several hour walk on one of the trails to Key Summit. It was breath taking. So nice, that we just couldn't stop and went one for few more hours then we planned. And it was much worth it. The scenery was so amazing, the colors so beautiful. So many greens, so beautiful.
After we returned from out walk we still had long way in front of us. We stopped at another dawns and Mirror lake. And then continued our way back inland. We were driving till late in the evening. And stopped to take some pictures of amazing night sky. We settled at one of the resting stops in the middle of nowhere. We cooked dinner, picked the tent and slept till morning.
Day 9:
Somewhere south of Queenstown - Queenstown - Franz Josef Village
After breakfast we went to Queenstown, walked around a bit. It's a really tourist city. We stop at cybercafe for hour and bought something for eat. After that we were on road again. This time to northwest to get to the West coast. The landscape was amazing. We also passed lakes Wanaka and Hawea and started to ascent to Haast Pass. The weather was getting worse again. But it cleared when we reached the West coast in Haast. Again the landscape was so beautifull.
We had cloudy weather with few showers till we reached our destination. But before that, we stopped at Fox glacier and enjoyed the view from far. In the evening we came to Franz Josef Village and settled in hostel there.
Day 10:
Franz Josef Village - Greymouth
After everyday morning routine we drove to the Franz Josef Glacier and went on the walk from there. It was about hour one way to reach the face of the glacier and it was well worth it. While there were many kindergartens (groups of tourists with a guide) that were actually going in the glacier we didn't go that far. We didn't have the right equipment. And guided tour were just too expensive.
I would never take such responsibility on myself. The walking on glacier is just to dangerous even if you are expert you have to be very careful. We did see the glacier from close, we even touched it. And we also went on a viewing track, so we had a nice overview on the glacier. It's amazing.
The special thing about this glaciers (Fox & Franz Josef) is that they are coming down to very low altitudes, almost as far as 300 m above the sea.
After glacier experience we had lots of kilometers of road ahead of us. Next stop was Hokitika, a greenstone hometown. First we walked along the beach and looked for some greenstone there. As we later found out we didn't found any. After the beach walk we went to center and payed a visit to few greenstone shops there. In some of them they are even showing how they work the stones to get the nice outcomes. The process is called carving. After a small lunch we continued to our final destination for the day. And that was Greymouth the home of New Zealand's most known beer: Monteiths.
After the dinner we went to tour in the brewery. It's quite small brewery and they don't really produce that much beer. They have 6 sorts of beer and at the end of the tour we had chance to taste them all.
My best is Radler.
That was the a nice end of the day for all of us.
Day 11:
Greymouth - Collingwood
Again there was long way in front of us. We had to go all the way to the north most point of south island. Our first stop on the way was seal colony at Cape Foulwind near Westport. Seals were resting at the coast and some young ones were running around exploring the neighborhood.
From there we continued our way inland to the Nelson region. We reached the north coast at Motueka and continued to west. We stopped at the pass and took a short walking path to the viewing spot. Again we were stunned of beauty that we saw and it was again completely different that we saw earlier. Several more kilometers and we reached the Collingwood in the early evening. We stayed in nice hostel Somerset. After the dinner we went out to beach and through the village itself. It's a really small village with about 250 people. The tide was out, far out and we had a chance to walk far into the area which is under water for half the time.
I slept in the 3rd flour of bunk bed, very very high above the ground.
Day 12:
Collingwood - Picton
This was last day of our south island adventure. We started with visiting the north most point of island. There is an arch there and it looks nice. After that we went on a short walk to a nearby hill to check the view. From the hilltop we were able to see the Farewell Spit as well as well as inland of Nelson region and the city of Collingwood. After the ascent we went for Farewell spit. It's a sand peninsula of 21 km of length and you can only get to the end with organised tours that were too expensive for us. We took the cheaper tour. We went into Farewell Spit for two kilometers on foot, we crossed it and then returned on the outer beach. And man that was exciting. At first it all looked just like an ordinary sand coast but soon all started to change. The vegetation was getting rarer and rarer, until at some point there was only sand left. That was where we crossed the dune to reach the other side of spit. On our way across I found some fresh watter and it was drinkable. The outer coast was even more extreme. You were able to see hoe each wave left new layer of sand on the coast.
It was amazing.
We were fortunate to have a really nice day and it felt almost like walking in desert.
After we returned from spit we still had to go all the way to Picton. And that's why we didn't made any stops but one for the gass.
We reached Picton at 9pm and stayed in hostel there. The weird thing about that hostel was that almost all the people there were German and so you could mostly hear just Gearman language everywhere.
Day 13:
Picton - Wanganui
In the morning of our return day we went on ferry and again witnessed a miracle. When our ferry was going out from south island it had to go along the Queen Charlotte Sound. The morning colors and rays in the deep waters of Sound were amazing. We even saw few dolphins that were swimming next to ferry for a short time. The only problem was that it was really cold and windy. But I stayed on deck anyway.
When we reached the ocean the waves were really high and weather was getting worse. I went back in for the rest of our drive.
Just before noon we reached Wellington and weather was much better there. The only part of our travel was the road back to Wanganui. After few hours of drive we were back home. And another adventure was behind us.
And with the report goes the photos as well, they were on for long now, but here is the link.
Day 1:
Wanganui - Wellington
Our journey started in the morning from student flats in Wanganui. We turned our car in direction of Wellington and start driving. The weather was nice and the roads weren't too full either.
Just few kilometers before Wellington we've seen the sign for a car museum and stopped there to check it out. As it turned out it was well wort it. The car collection was so big, nice and well preserved. They had cars from beginning on. And not only cars they had bikes and motorcycles as well.
After two amazing hours we hit the road again. We came in Wellington in the afternoon and first checked where our ferry for south island is leaving from.
After we found the place we went in the center of city and payed a visit to city museum and private gallery. We walked along few roads in the center and decided to go to botanical gardens that were just on the hill in the city. We spent few hours there to walk several trail and stopped at interesting spots.
We still had some more hours to spent before our ferry departure. And we went to cinema to check what they are rolling.
After the movies we went to the beach and finally ended at ferry terminal where we waited until 2am for boarding.
Day 2:
Picton - Kaikoura
After a nice sleep on the ferry we started our way on the south island. From Picton, where the ferry came in, we went in direction of south. We still didn't get enough sleep and that was the reason that after few kilometers of drive we stopped for a short rest (2 hours). After we were awake again we continued our journey. We stopped at the salt works at Lake Grassmere for a while. Soon after that we the road hit the coast. The views were amazing.
In the afternoon we came to the end of first days traveling in Kaikoura. Since there were still several hours before the sunset we went for a walk along beach to get to the seal colony. The walkway was great and led us from cliffs to low beach. And yes we also encountered seals there. After the walk we planned to pick a tent somewhere around, but sadly weather was getting worse and it started to rain. So we searched for a hostel and found one. We cooked our meal and went to bed.
Day 3:
Kaikoura - Christchurch - Banks peninsula - Christchurch
Our destination for this day was Christchurch and Banks peninsula. That meant a lot of kilometers of driving and so we started early in the morning. We continued on coastal road for several more kilometers and finally turned inland. The scenery completely changed. The grassy hills were just amazingly beautiful.
In the early afternoon we came to Christchurch and found our hotel there. We were staying in the middle of the town in a 4 star hotel with buffet breakfast.
After we checked-in we continued our journey to Banks peninsula to the south-east of Christchurch. The scenery there was again amazing. We did two short walks on the peninsula and returned to city late in the evening. We still didn't have enough and so we went out to see how the city looks at night.
Day 4:
Christchurch
After a really great breakfast we started the sightseeing in the city. We walked through the center. We payed a visit to the art gallery and city museum. The museum was really nice, especially the kids area. They had collections of birds, fishes, arctic expeditions, early settlement things and more. After museum we went to park. A really big park in the middle of the city and in that park we went in the botanical gardens, where they had closed environments of rain-forest, desert and few other environments. They also had nice collection of meat eating plants and cactus.
After that we went to HitLab, where they had demonstrations of all the things that they were currently working on. It was amazing. They are researching cutting edge technologies of augmented and virtual reality. You can find more on their website (here).
After we went back to our hotel we went for an American (Wisconsin) burger and back to hotel. There was again long drive waiting for us next day.
Day 5:
Christchurch - Mt. Cook Village
In the morning there was quite a lot of traffic in the city and it took us a while before we came out of the city. We started our trip to the heart of south island and so we went inland to the southwest of Christchurch. At first we had bad weather with rain. But we were nearing our destination and came to the really nice places the weather started to get better and better. We passed Lake Tekapo and stopped at the Mt. John observatory near there. The center of NZ astronomical observations. After few more kilometers we reached the biggest lake in NZ, Lake Pukaki. And that was the first time we've seen it - the highest mountain in NZ, Mt. Cook - Aoraki. We drove along it and onwards to the Mount Cook Village. That was close to mountain.
After we finished our lunch and picked the tent in the camp, we went for a walk for a short walk on a track nearby. It was amazing. The mountains around were so beautiful. After we came back I stayed outside for another hour laying on soft grass, enjoying a nice view at the stars.
Day 6:
Mt. Cook Village - Dunedin
The night was really cold and windy. The wind got worse and worse. And we woke up in windy morning with few snowflakes falling down on us. After we had breakfast in a cooking shelter we went for a short walk to one of the other tracks in the area. As every day there was long way to go this day also. We drove past Pukaki lake again, enjoying it's gorgeous color and size. We were heading for the east coast again and we were passing really nice landscape on our way. Somewhere along the road we stopped to take a look at very old Maori drawings on walls.
We passed several more lakes, all of them really beautiful. After several kilometers along the coast we stopped again to see very famoues stones: Moeraki Bolders (Kaihinaki). These are spherical stones that grow under surface. The see was washing the land away and that is how they got exposed.
We continued our path south and hit Dunedin soon. We didn't stopped and were continuing our drive to the nearby Otago peninsula. We went to Albatross colony shelter, the only albatross nesting area on mainland in the world. The weather was getting worse and we stopped at private backpackers place which as run by very nice old man. After the dinner we went out for a walk to see seals or penguins, but unfortunately we didn't encounter any. But I did manage to lose my glasses. We went out later to search for them but without luck. Later on we went for a chat with owner and he told us many stories that he lived through.
Day 7:
Dunedin - Milford Sound
After a really nice sleep on Otago peninsula we went to search for my glasses again, and this time we were more lucky. I got them back. We also found out that there was first snow of the year in the nearby hills. After search and rescue mission we went to Dunedin and stopped for a short time to check our e-mail account and get some news from the world. This day we had the longest part in front of us. Our goal was to get all over from east coast to the west coast in Fjordland.
We only stopped for a short time in Gore to get more food for our journey. After that we were driving for hours and hours. We encountered now on one of the passes. The first encounter with Fjordland was in Monapouri next to the lake with same name. And it was just B.E.A.utiful. Few kilometers later we stopped in Te Anau to get some warm clothing like gloves and hats. Te Anau is next to big Lake Te Anau that is surrounded wit hills and mountains. So nice. It was already getting dark and we still had lots of kilometers in front of us. So we filled out tank with gas and went on. The night caught us on the way. and we had amazing view at the sky full of stars and moon. And on top of that there were mountains all around us. It's just indescribable. We came to Milford sound at 10pm and got ourselves a room at backpackers. After a good dinner we went to the Milford sound (fjord) itself and walked a short path there. We also went to a really nice waterfall, where we wouldn't be able to in day.
Full of excitement and pleasure we went back to backpacker and took a well deserved sleep.
Day 8:
Milford Sound - Somewhere south of Queenstown
As every morning we put some food in out bodies and start adventuring. First stop was Miford sound. Completely different then at night and still amazing. We started our way inland again. First we stopped at some really nice dawns that created amazing things out of rocks. Wild structures. We stopped for another short walk with magnificent view at glacier in the mountains. Few more kilometers back inland we stopped again. This time for a longer walk. We went for several hour walk on one of the trails to Key Summit. It was breath taking. So nice, that we just couldn't stop and went one for few more hours then we planned. And it was much worth it. The scenery was so amazing, the colors so beautiful. So many greens, so beautiful.
After we returned from out walk we still had long way in front of us. We stopped at another dawns and Mirror lake. And then continued our way back inland. We were driving till late in the evening. And stopped to take some pictures of amazing night sky. We settled at one of the resting stops in the middle of nowhere. We cooked dinner, picked the tent and slept till morning.
Day 9:
Somewhere south of Queenstown - Queenstown - Franz Josef Village
After breakfast we went to Queenstown, walked around a bit. It's a really tourist city. We stop at cybercafe for hour and bought something for eat. After that we were on road again. This time to northwest to get to the West coast. The landscape was amazing. We also passed lakes Wanaka and Hawea and started to ascent to Haast Pass. The weather was getting worse again. But it cleared when we reached the West coast in Haast. Again the landscape was so beautifull.
We had cloudy weather with few showers till we reached our destination. But before that, we stopped at Fox glacier and enjoyed the view from far. In the evening we came to Franz Josef Village and settled in hostel there.
Day 10:
Franz Josef Village - Greymouth
After everyday morning routine we drove to the Franz Josef Glacier and went on the walk from there. It was about hour one way to reach the face of the glacier and it was well worth it. While there were many kindergartens (groups of tourists with a guide) that were actually going in the glacier we didn't go that far. We didn't have the right equipment. And guided tour were just too expensive.
I would never take such responsibility on myself. The walking on glacier is just to dangerous even if you are expert you have to be very careful. We did see the glacier from close, we even touched it. And we also went on a viewing track, so we had a nice overview on the glacier. It's amazing.
The special thing about this glaciers (Fox & Franz Josef) is that they are coming down to very low altitudes, almost as far as 300 m above the sea.
After glacier experience we had lots of kilometers of road ahead of us. Next stop was Hokitika, a greenstone hometown. First we walked along the beach and looked for some greenstone there. As we later found out we didn't found any. After the beach walk we went to center and payed a visit to few greenstone shops there. In some of them they are even showing how they work the stones to get the nice outcomes. The process is called carving. After a small lunch we continued to our final destination for the day. And that was Greymouth the home of New Zealand's most known beer: Monteiths.
After the dinner we went to tour in the brewery. It's quite small brewery and they don't really produce that much beer. They have 6 sorts of beer and at the end of the tour we had chance to taste them all.
My best is Radler.
That was the a nice end of the day for all of us.
Day 11:
Greymouth - Collingwood
Again there was long way in front of us. We had to go all the way to the north most point of south island. Our first stop on the way was seal colony at Cape Foulwind near Westport. Seals were resting at the coast and some young ones were running around exploring the neighborhood.
From there we continued our way inland to the Nelson region. We reached the north coast at Motueka and continued to west. We stopped at the pass and took a short walking path to the viewing spot. Again we were stunned of beauty that we saw and it was again completely different that we saw earlier. Several more kilometers and we reached the Collingwood in the early evening. We stayed in nice hostel Somerset. After the dinner we went out to beach and through the village itself. It's a really small village with about 250 people. The tide was out, far out and we had a chance to walk far into the area which is under water for half the time.
I slept in the 3rd flour of bunk bed, very very high above the ground.
Day 12:
Collingwood - Picton
This was last day of our south island adventure. We started with visiting the north most point of island. There is an arch there and it looks nice. After that we went on a short walk to a nearby hill to check the view. From the hilltop we were able to see the Farewell Spit as well as well as inland of Nelson region and the city of Collingwood. After the ascent we went for Farewell spit. It's a sand peninsula of 21 km of length and you can only get to the end with organised tours that were too expensive for us. We took the cheaper tour. We went into Farewell Spit for two kilometers on foot, we crossed it and then returned on the outer beach. And man that was exciting. At first it all looked just like an ordinary sand coast but soon all started to change. The vegetation was getting rarer and rarer, until at some point there was only sand left. That was where we crossed the dune to reach the other side of spit. On our way across I found some fresh watter and it was drinkable. The outer coast was even more extreme. You were able to see hoe each wave left new layer of sand on the coast.
It was amazing.
We were fortunate to have a really nice day and it felt almost like walking in desert.
After we returned from spit we still had to go all the way to Picton. And that's why we didn't made any stops but one for the gass.
We reached Picton at 9pm and stayed in hostel there. The weird thing about that hostel was that almost all the people there were German and so you could mostly hear just Gearman language everywhere.
Day 13:
Picton - Wanganui
In the morning of our return day we went on ferry and again witnessed a miracle. When our ferry was going out from south island it had to go along the Queen Charlotte Sound. The morning colors and rays in the deep waters of Sound were amazing. We even saw few dolphins that were swimming next to ferry for a short time. The only problem was that it was really cold and windy. But I stayed on deck anyway.
When we reached the ocean the waves were really high and weather was getting worse. I went back in for the rest of our drive.
Just before noon we reached Wellington and weather was much better there. The only part of our travel was the road back to Wanganui. After few hours of drive we were back home. And another adventure was behind us.
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