Not long off the ferry and we were looking at the fabulous scenery. Here is the bay off the north of the island.
We headed off down the west coast, stopping off for tea at what we thought was a pretty nice spot!
Finally found a camp ground - in a field.
Set up perfectly with our own cooker - Kenny trying to get it going ready for tea.
'Cooking' our tea on the open flame (note gas cooker on the table behind us).
The driving is amazing here, no traffic at all and every road seems to wind through amazing after amazing view.
Cable Bay - the first telegraph cable to connect NZ to the rest of the world, before this it took 6 months to get a letter from NZ to UK.
One of our short but steep walks.
The glorious colour of the bay.
The only delay on the roads.
The amazing NZ countryside which just got better and better.
............. and better
............. even better
.................
A typical street in a one horse town on the way to Greymouth
The stunning winding river.
Many of the place names here are similar to home and others are 'names' for example we found 'Kenny Isle', 'Walker Isle' and 'Adele Island'. Imagine my delight when we came across 'Wall Island'
My little Island, she may be small but so perfectly formed! (Just like her name sake)
Wall Island had on it a seal colony - there are some seals in this picture but you have to look hard to find them.
In case we need to find our way home.
Sunny days & wonderful walks.
More beautiful beaches.
Yet another fantastic 'campsite'.
The sunset from our camp.
Further down the coast is a place boasting 'Pancake Rocks'.
Such bizarre rock scape.
Which really did look like pancakes.
Kenny along with more fabulous coastal rock formations.
We then headed off down the road to Greymouth (not much there) famous for its mining of both gold & coal. While looking for a camping place we came upon an old mine called 'Brumner'.
Fascinating place still with many of its old features.
Coal cart.
A little further down the road they have a living museum called 'Shanty Town' and relic to the gold mining era.
Complete with old shoe shop.
School
Kenny outside the jail carrying his 'ball and chain', before you say it this one was much harder to carry than me!!
The cart house.
In the hospital they had a rather interesting spin on 'How to Treat your Wife'.
The Shanty Town street.
Complete with a working steam train to take us up the track. The 'Gold Rush' drove many people to Shanty Town, including Chinese immigrants. Many people did become rich from gold but many more wasted the profits.
Camp for the night,
Those sunsets just got better and better!
We drove down the country in terrible weather to get to Franz Josef. A small ski resort famous for its glacier.
Walking to the glacier.
The Franz Josef glacier, incredible considering it is at only around 300 meters altitude and a mile or so from the sea.
Spectacular with the river running underneath it.
Driving back out from Franz Josef we drove through the most fabulous countryside and found this incredible spot to camp.
Near the camp ground is 'Matheson Lake', clear reflective water surrounded by wildlife and woodland.
Lake Matheson.
My arty shot back up the valley near the lake.
A little restaurant at the end of the lake was a perfect place to stop for drinks at sunset.
From which we had a clear-ish view of Mount Cook, the highest mountian in New Zealand.
Not a bad place to camp I'd say.
The next day we headed of down the road a little to the Fox Glacier, which in order to get to we had to navigate a fast flowing river.
Finally we crossed over it and behold yet another classic glacier.
Some where down the East coast, a bay which promised a penguin colony. After walking for 40 mins we arrived to find it was not their time of year to be in the bay. This deserted beach looks lovely but here the sand flies made a meal of whoever dared to stand still for more than 2 seconds. Kenny & I where bitten all over!
The views just get better & better down the East coast. (Errr...West coast, Sarah. You can tell who was the navigator in the van, can't you! - K)
We should have know that choosing to camp at Mosquito Hill was a bad choice. This was the fastest I have ever cooked our tea and we were locked safely in the van within minutes. Note the cunning trousers in socks technique! (OK - I'll take this little map reading oversight on the chin! - K)
We started heading more inland at this point and found some stunning lakes.
With a pretty waterfall.
Clear glacial waters.
Full Mozzie defenses required!
Another little waterfall where people had built many tiny little cairns.
So of course we built one too. Kenny putting the final touches to ours.
Driving further through the lakes.
We finally ended up in Wanaka a beautiful little town on the edge of a fantastic lake.
The scenery on this leg of the trip was amazing, our only negative was the bloomin' flies. Both our legs and arms were covered in itchy bites and we had to make sure we were covered head to toe, despite the heat, to avoid being bitten more.
If I never see another sand fly it will be fine with me!
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