The Southern Alps

On the boat ride up the Abel Tasman coast we chatted with a woman who had been in the tourism industry in New Zealand for 30 years. She recommended that we stayed at the Okarito Campground as it was a beautiful location on the beach, and 16km off the beaten path, so few people bothered go there. And she was right! Wonderful to have the Southern Alps as a backdrop!

A Little Geography

The Southern Alps extend along much of the length of the South Island, and run 450km from north to south. Mt. Cook is the higher point at 3,754 metres (12,316 ft). There are 16 other peaks over 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) in height. The mountains are cut through with glacial valleys and lakes. A beautiful area.

A Little Biology

New Zealand has no large predatory animals, but do beware of the black sand flies. These are nastily little bastards predominantly located on the west coast of the South Island, and their bite hurts for days and leave wedges. Only the female sand flies bite!

We drove to Franz Josef to book the heli hike, and the very helpful Department of Conservation (DOC) representative recommended that we took a bottle of wine, our head lamps, and hiked the 4.2km up to the Okarito Trig to see the sunset over the Southern Alps - what a great idea!

The view of the lagoon and the campground.

The following day we did the 9.8km Three Mile Lagoon via Costal Route Walk, also recommended by the DOC rep. She even gave us the tidal times as the coastal part of the walk can only be done two hours on each side of low tide. The first half of the walk was through the lush native forest.

Then we reached Three Mile Lagoon.

Took a break taking in the stunning views.

Dorte won the Inukshuk building competition.....

The walk back to the campground was fun, as we sometimes had to run from the waves to avoid getting wet feet - it wasn't quite low tide yet! Another wonderful walk!

Thanks to local recommendations, we had two wonderful days here full of experiences we would otherwise never had had! It pays to listen and act!

The Rugged West Coast

We left Abel Tasman behind and drove south west to the West Coast. Hemmed in by the wild Tasman Sea and the Southern Alps, the West coast is like no where else in New Zealand. Only about 32,000 people reside in this area being 1% of NZ's population scattered amid almost 9% of the country. It definitely has a end-of-the-road feel.

WESTPORT

We reached the ocean in Westport, and had a relaxing day recovering from the Abel hike. We went to Cape Foulwind and saw a few seals.

Have to keep an eye on the gas in this area.....

PANCAKE ROCKS

We followed the South Highway 6 along the surf-pounded coastline to Punakaiki and stopped to see the Pancake Rocks. 

Nature's pancake receipe:

The world's first lazy boy chair, about 70 million years old, making Andy a living fossil!

We are far away from home....

We stopped for lunch at the beach, and was met by a couple of very curious weka birds. The flightless bird is considered an endangered species in New Zealand, but somewhat plentiful in this region.

HOKITIKA

'Hoki' looked like a Wild West town with its wide and fairly quiet streets. 

After 3,5 weeks in the Spaceship, we longed to have a little more space, a good bed  and some privacy - always sharing washroom and kitchen facilities with other people is tiring - so we checked into a motel. The only room available had had a fire in the oven, so it smelled a little of oven cleaner, but that got solved by opening all the windows and doors, and cooking a nice juicy steak!

GOLD

New Zealand's largest gold nugget, the 2,772kg 'Honourable Roddy' was found in Ross in 1907, and created quite a stir in this area.

HARI HARI

Hari Hari made headlines in 1931 when the Australian aviator Guy Menzies completed the first solo trans-Tasman flight from Sydney. The flight took 11 hours, and he crash-landed his plane at the souther end of town. 

A perfect spot for lunch.

Abel Tasman Costal Track

It was a beautiful 3.5 hour boat ride from Wellington on the North Island to Picton on the South Island.

We are definitely getting closer to Antarctica, but we didn't see any penguins!

Most of the roads are two lane roads, and windy, so it takes a while to get from A to B, so we have learned to go by the suggested travel times and not kilometres. We stopped for lunch at a beautiful lake.

A Little History

We stayed in Marahau, a tiny village with 200 inhabitants! As it is the main gateway to the Abel Tasman National Park. Abel Tasman was a Dutch seafarer, and the first known European to reach the Australian island now called Tasmania, as well as New Zealand.

We were taking a boat up the coast and then hike the 24km back to Marahau. The Abel Tasman area has crazy tides; up to 6m difference between low and high tide, so we entered the boat on land, and got transported into the ocean by a tractor. 

Quite funny to sit in a boat with the life jacket on driving on the road! We saw Split Appel Rock.

It was a beautiful ride up the coast.

We got dropped of at Bark Bay, and headed south along the track.

Most of the hike was in the trees but there was some beautiful view points along the way.

We took a 'small' detour of 3km to have a swim and lunch at the secluded Watering Cove.

It was the easiest 28km we had ever done, but we were tired of walking at the end of the day. We just made it before the end of Happy Hour at the bar. What a relief!