Stuck in a ditch on the South Island
05.20.2007 - 05.30.2007
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Well, we are basically done with New Zealand. We return the campervan tomorrow and head to Brisbane. Australia the next day. The South Island has been an amazing place, and I have many more pictures than I can reasonably post.
After arriving in Picton from the ferry, we drove along winding, rainy roads to the Abel Tasman Park, where we walked some ridiculous number of kilometers because we did not want to pay for the one-way water taxi. The water at this place, as with most places in New Zealand is a deep blue like I have not seen since the jungles of Mexico. South down the West Coast brought us into cold rain forests with cavern treks and "Pancake Rocks". In Franz Josef, we hiked up a glacier with spectacular views. You might ask, how is it that a glacier exists in a rain forest? Well it turns out that New Zealand's "warm glaciers" are created by massive amounts of snowfall up the mountain a bit. Pretty boring explanation, I know.
After the glacier hike, we saw another glacier and I drove the campervan into a ditch, which was pretty funny. We were extremely lucky to be only a few kilometers from a town. The tow truck driver made fun of me relentlessly.
Stuck in a ditch
Further south, we made our way out of the rain forests and past some waterfalls and what not, into Queenstown. After Many more Lord of the Rings filming sites, countless forest hikes and snowy mountain landscapes, and feeding some farm animals, we turned East.
I locked the keys in the car in a Holiday Park in the middle of nowhere and was pretty sure we were absolutely screwed this time. The nearest locksmith was about 150 kilometers away and it was dark and the temperature was at or below freezing. Needless to say, Erin was quite pissed. Again, we got quite lucky, as we found a guy name "Mr. Jones" who lived at the Holiday Park and happened to be a retired locksmith. He had all the tools of the trade and he spent two patient hours helping us get in. I now check my pocket every few minutes for the keys.
On the East Coast, we toured the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, because I am addicted to the stuff, and we went to beaches where rare penguins live, but saw no penguins because this is the off season and we didn't want to pay. (This is a trend, I know. It is not that we are cheap, it is just that this country is damn expensive.)
Driving down here is nuts. For some reason, the Ministry of Transport thought it was a good idea to make all bridges converge into one lane, so every few kilometers, there is a white-knuckle bridge crossing where you just hope the guy in the "give-way" lane will stop. Also, in some roads along cliffs, you can tell the road construction crew was too lazy to blast out enough space to fit two lanes, so they simply make it a one lane road and reduce the speed limit a bit. If the curve is blind, and you are lucky, they will put up a mirror so that you can see oncoming traffic. All of this is on main highways. Oh, and I think New Zealand is the road kill capital of the world. It seems you cannot drive a few hundred meters without seeing a dead rabbit or possum.
Anyway, next update I will hopefully have some pictures of kangaroos.
Tom
Sunrise near Abel Tasman
Abel Tasman National Park
Halfway through our 22km walk in Abel Tasman National Park
Another view of Abel Tasman
Our shoes got soaked in this one
Rainforest waterfall
Nice river on South Island's West Coast
Blowhole at Pancake Rocks
Pancake Rocks
Exploring a cavern with my new headlight
We have not actually seen penguins yet
Eating chicken flavoured chips
Typical South Island road
Blue Mushroom
Red Mushroom
Rainforest Walk
Valley view from the glacier
Alpine Parrot
Glacier View 1
Glacier View 2
Us on the glacier
Me with a pick-axe
Smell the glove
View near Fox Glacier
Fox Glacier and some mountaintops
Instead of seeing penguins, we saw only pebbles
Random roadside waterfall
Some blue river near Haast
Roadside view near Mt. Aspiring National Park
Start of a day hike
During the day hike
End of the day hike
Cutting onions in the campervan
Lake Sylvan (Supposedly Isengard from Lord of the Rings)
Forest Walk
Erin on a suspension bridge
Fields and Mountains near Glenorchy
Imagine Gandolf riding his horse here
Erin feeding a donkey
Tina, come get some dinner!
Moeraki Boulders on the East Coast
Learning to fly at Moeraki Boulders
Posted by tommydavis 05.29.2007 16:01 Archived in New Zealand Comments (0)
