Day 21 (16th November)

We discovered the lovely, laid back town of Wanaka – cute boutiques and cafes to brighten up an otherwise soggy morning. We needed to get to Queenstown and our anti-clockwise route around the South Island was chosen because the drive through the Cardrona Valley that links these two towns is best done from Wanaka due to the fine views. We set off in low cloud which deteriorated to heavy rain and, halfway along the road, piled into the Cardona Hotel for a hearty lunch of venison and fish ‘n’ chips around their log fire. The hotel harks back to the gold mining era and the bar has an entrance to one of the old mining shafts. From there we descended on Arrowtown as the rain descended on us and the views were obliterated. We tried to dodge the downpour from shop to shop and spent a good long time in Craig Potton’s photographic gallery talking to an English lady who emigrated to NZ four years ago as well as admiring Craig’s amazing pictures.

Day 20 (15th November)

Today we fancied doing a ‘tramp’ as the sun was shining and we drove to Wanaka to check out weather report at the ever-helpful DOC Info Centre. It looked set to be fine so we headed east along the bumpiest 30km track following Matukituki River upstream, over nine fords to Raspberry Creek car park. The walk was so worth it though: ferocious winds whipped us up the valley and made crossing the river on the long swing bridge a bit scary. Ancient beech trees afforded protection from the worst of the gusts as we climbed above the tree line to spectacular views of Rob Roy Glacier. Here huge waterfalls were tumbling down over ledges but were swept away by the wind seemingly not to reach the bottom. We witnessed an avalanche and made friends with a kea – a clever alpine parrot that has adapted to its harsh environment by begging and often helping itself to food carried in rucksacks. Clouds gathered as we turned tail and were blown back through the forest, passed skipping lambs in the fields and kicked up more dust on our return drive to Glendhu Bay. As we set up camp at Lake Wanaka the rain started.

Day 19 (14th November)

Drove to Fox Glacier information centre to hear people being turned away from booking helicopter rides due to low cloud. Smugly we headed for Wanaka, stopping to take a walk through bush to Monro beach where we saw three penguins waddle from the rocks down to the sea before clouds of sandflies drove us back into the bush. The sun came out as we turned inland to follow the course of Haast River and we saw some lovely black and red butterflies as we paused by a waterfall. We travelled through countryside reminiscent of the English Lake District and arrived on the shores of Lake Hawea to watch the moon rise from behind the mountains across the lake. It was a beautiful, warm night.

Day 18 (13th November)

Low cloud postponed our trip from 9 to 11.30am. But when the sun came out we were up, up and awaaaay!! We had a fantastic flight: Chester and I were in the front seats near the pilot and there was another couple seated behind. We traversed along the side of the Southern Alps to ascend Fox Glacier, up to Mount Cook and over the divide to view the long and almost horizontal Tasman Glacier. We landed at on a wide snowfield, jumped out of the helicopter to throw snowballs at each other and make blue footprints all in hot sunshine, then zig-zagged over the crevices of Franz Josef Glacier on our descent. Just the most tummy leaping experience – it was 40 minutes of fabulousness, a real highlight of our trip! We felt even luckier after hearing that about one in three trips to Mount Cook are cancelled due to the poor weather the Tasman Sea conjures up and throws at it. On a high we drove out towards the coast to take in the reflections of the great mountains in Lake Matheson but the wind had crept up and we continued on to Gillespies Beach/ Here we free camped (with a few others) and watched the sun turn the Alps pink behind us as it set into the sea.

Day 17 (12th November)

Got up at 8am and fed the fat ginger camp cat (or the camp ginger fat cat – Ian?) the remains of our steak dinner. It was a grey day with low cloud as we set off down the west coast which proudly advertises itself as the ‘Grey Region’ (well that should pull in the crowds!). We took another quick peek at Pancake Rocks to see if the difference in tide height could impress Chester, but alas, there was not much more activity than on the previous evening. As we continued, the coastline got more and more bleak until we landed in Greymouth for supplies. I am not sure why anyone would choose to live here: it has the greyest weather, it is miles away from civilisation, the buildings are dull, the people are frighteningly ugly and the river inundates the town on occasions. However, not wishing to totally offend, the people here were also amongst some of the friendliest and most helpful we’ve met! Encouraged to move on we headed for glacier country and pitched up at Franz Josef Glacier as the sun came out. We booked a helicopter trip for the following morning and spent the evening feeling very excited!

Day 16 (11th November) – the West Coast

There’s some seriously odd bird behaviour in NZ: this morning Kate had her toes pecked by seven ducklings as mummy mallard looked on and black swans were seen swimming on the sea! It may be to do with the fact we rose at 6am to make the most of the day and hadn’t yet got our brains into gear but I’m pretty sure we didn’t both dream it. The cold shower at this horrid campsite awoke the senses pretty sharply! We needed to start covering some distance so today we drove from Parapara in Golden Bay down the centre and out to the west coast to take the last site in the campground at Punakaiki. On the way we stopped for lunch and took a woodland walk by Lake Rotoiti in Nelson Lakes National Park. The trees are covered in what look like tiny strands of white cotton threads with droplets hanging off the end. These are the anal canals of a scale insect that feed on the trees and produce a sweet honeydew substance that birds love (tasty!). The birdsong here was lovely and we would probably have enjoyed more had we not been chased around the walk by a coach load of very noisy Americans. We also stopped further on near Murchison to cross the longest swing bridge in New Zealand (don’t look down!) over the Buller River.
Before finding camp we had a peek at Pancake Rocks. These are amazing limestone formations that have been eroded to look like stacks of pancakes and when the tide is high and the wind is up, the sea booms into the caverns below and creates spectacular bursts of spray forced up through blowholes. Chester, however, was underwhelmed!

Day 15 (10th November) – Golden Bay

This morning we met a pukeko! This is a pretty blue bird the size of a hen with a bright red beak. It very elegantly strutted through the long grass but when I threw it some bread it picked it up with the ugliest gnarled red claw I’ve ever seen! We stopped off in Takaka for supplies and headed up the coast to Collingwood, the place of Rosy Glow Chocolates: lovingly hand made and sold from a wee pink cottage by the beach. Yum! The rain cleared as we reached Farewell Spit at the very top of South Island. This is a renowned bird sanctuary and protected wetland area with a 26km long beach and huge sand dunes which can only be reached through a tour company. The café at the top was closed so we took photos of as much of it as we could see alongside the skeleton of an unfortunate beached pilot whale. Travelled a further 7km along an unsealed road to take a walk across farmland onto a dramatically remote windswept beach. Here we encountered the unlikely meeting of sheep, seals, horses and blue jellyfish-like sea creatures.