Tuesday 24th March

Pukeko Pete at the Rob Roy Glacier viewpoint.

The Rob Roy Glacier from the track.

Andrew's cute Tom Tit photo.

Looking up towards Rob Roy from near the start of the track.

Rob Roy in the front with Mt Aspiring behind.

Rob Roy and Mt Aspiring as viewed from the road.

Today we walked the track to the Rob Roy Glacier viewpoint. As you can see from the photos the weather was gorgeous the whole day - but quite hot!

The track starts about an hours drive west of Wanaka (on a gravel road - fun in a campervan!), and then the walk itself is a four hour return trip, so it pretty much took up the whole day (about 7 hours all up), but it was well worth it. The track is known as one of the most picturesque one-day walks in NZ, and it certainly lives up to its reputation. We saw lots of beautiful bush and cute little birds (including rifleman, tom tits, fantails, bell birds, grey warblers etc).

We are staying the night in Wanaka again tonight before heading to Queenstown tomorrow.

Monday 23rd March

Wanaka's main street - looking towards the surrounding ranges.

Lake Hawea - on the drive to Wanaka.

Andrew's cute bumble bee photo.

Andrew's cute fantail photo.

The river at the Gates of Haast - you won't believe the trouble Andrew went to, to get this one!

Another photo at the Gates of Haast.

Today we drove from Haast to Wanaka, stopping at some of the famous walks along the Haast Highway including Pleasant Flat (views of Mt Hooker - very cool), Roaring Billy Falls (nothing special), Fantail Falls (quite pretty - but again, what is with the stacks of stones everywhere?), the Gates of Haast (see photos above, which Andrew went climbing all through the gorge to get, while I froze my tits off at the top as he had the campervan key!), and the Haast Pass Lookout track - nice view from the top. Unfortunately the track to the Blue Pools is closed at present as they are replacing the swing bridge and viewing platform, so we couldn't go there - cue major bummer (oh well, we'll have to come back some other time).

We then drove straight through to Wanaka with fantastic views of both Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea from the road. Once we reached town we stopped for coffee and cake (even though it was 5pm) and had a bit of a wander around the town centre and lake front before finding a campground to bunk down in for the night - we chose Aspiring Campervan Park - very nice 5* place, with awesome showers!

Sunday 22nd March

Pukeko Pete getting his caffeine hit for the day at The Cray Pot at Jackson's Bay.

Ship's Creek - between Knight's Point and Haast.

Michelle's pretty stone.

Dune Lake at Ship's Creek.

Lake Paringa in early morning.

Pukeko Pete in his natural habitat at Lake Paringa.

Today awoke at Lake Paringa to a blue skied, but misty morning - bugger, maybe we should have stayed at Lake Matheson!

On the way to Haast we stopped at Knight's Point where we could see seals basking in the sunshine on the beach at Arnott Point in the distance. The next stop was at Ship's Creek where there are a couple of lovely walks - one through the dunes and beside a small lake, and another through the pristine remnants of lowlands forest - both were very pretty.

We then drove to Haast - which was much smaller than we expected and continued on towards Jackson's Bay south of Haast. Jackson's Bay is a small fishing village at the end of the road south on the West Coast. Lots of people had raved about it, which is why we decided to go there, but to be honest, we didn't think it was anything special. Yes, it was pretty and quaint, but not really worth the 100km round trip in our opinion.

So back to Haast for the night where we had beer and fish and chips for dinner at a picnic table with a view.

Saturday 21st March

Lake Paringa at sunset.
My first attempt at an HDR image - you'll only know what that is if you're a photo geek.


Lake Paringa after sunset.

Our new trip mascot - Pukeko Pete, enjoying the ride.

Massive salmon at the salmon farm just before Lake Paringa.

The piles of stones that tourists have built on the beach at Bruce Bay.

Pukeko Pete keeping an eye on Andrew's
Our trip mascot "Pukeko Pete" - purchased at the gift shop at Lake Matheson.

Michelle getting all tactile with the local mosses.

Michelle's response to me taking photos.

A friendly Tom Tit.


Fox glacier.

We bumped into Andrew's Auntie Helen and Uncle Marty at Fox glacier. It's a small country.
They were on travelling round to celebrate their 40th wedding aniversary.

Fox Glacier's no swimming sign.

Today we drove from Franz Josef to Lake Paringa with several stops along the way. First off was Fox Glacier, where we walked to the terminal face and ran into Andrew's Aunt and Uncle - small world!

Next was Lake Matheson which has famed views of Mt Cook reflected in the lake on a clear day - unfortunately today was not one of those days with low cloud obscuring all the Southern Alps - so we did the walk around, took a few photos and visited the gift shop - where we bought Pukeko Pete, who will be our trip mascot and photo star. The weather wasn't looking too flash for the following morning either, so we decided against staying in Fox and returning to Lake Matheson in the morning and continued on the road south.

We had a quick stop at Bruce Bay which is famous for having beautiful Rimu forest right down to the shore line. We were eaten alive by the millions of sandflies, so after a few photos we jumped back in the van and headed off.

We stopped at the DOC campground at Lake Paringa for the night, the lake was beautiful in the evening light - pity about the salmon fisherman all over the place in their noisy runabouts!

Friday 20th March

Crevasse in the glacier

Me coming out of the tunnel

Us on the neve of the Fox glacier during our helicopter ride

The neve of the fox glacier with the alps at the rear.

Andrew in front of our helicopter on the neve of Fox glacier.

Mt Tasman during our helicopter flight

Our pilot with the glacier in the background

The neve of the Franz Josef Glacier

The Franz Josef Glacier from the air

The Franz Josef Glacier

Andrew at the Franz Josef Glacier lookout

Franz Josef Glacier

Franz Josef Glacier from one of the viewpoints on our walk

Frans Josef glacier reflected in Peter's Pool

Had a HUGE day on the glaciers today - so much fun!!!!

Started off with a couple of walks in the morning around Franz Josef Glacier to see some impressive views. Then at 1100 we went for a helicopter ride around both Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers including a landing on the Neve of the Fox Glacier - this was sooooo much fun and definitely the highlight of the trip so far. We would higly recommend a heli-ride if you are ever at the glaciers the views of both the valleys and the glaciers were amazing and you get a really good impression of just how huge they are from up there.

When we arrived back in FJ we booked an afternoon 1/2 day walk on the glaciers leaving a 1500. So we had a bit of time to have lunch and book back into the campground for the night, before we walked back to the Franz Josef Glacier Guides office. We got all our gear - boots, socks, crampons and raincoats and then boarded the bus for the short trip out to the glacier. We then had to walk for about 45 mins to the glacier face before putting on our crampons and walking onto the glacier. We had two guides for our group of 26 assorted tourists from all over the world - Andrew and I were the only Kiwi's - Dale and Bryce (who was from Hastings originally!). We walked on the glacier for about two hours including squeezing through cravasses and tunnels with our guides cutting steps as we went. We left the glacier at about 1900, and again walked the 45mins back to the bus and back to the village.


Back in FJ we had some of the best Indian we have ever had as Priya Indian Restaurant before collapsing into bed at about 10pm absolutely buggered!

Thursday 19th March

Fern on one of our walks

Dorothy Falls at Lake Kaniere

Greenstone carving at Hokitika Museum

Awoke to a rainy morning in Hokitika so we decided to go to the Hokitika Museum - very interesting with good displays on pounamu, gold mining and other settler type stuff. Wandered around Hokitika for a while before heading out east to Lake Kaniere once the weather fined up. Took a couple of short walks around the lake - the views were beautiful.

In the early afternoon we continued south to Ross - one of the historic goldfields towns. Here we visited the museum and took a walk around the old goldfields and saw mining relics and some of the old town buildings. It was very well set up to give visitors an impression of the history of the area.

Continued south to Franz Josef in the late afternoon passing by several pretty lakes and impressive mountains to the east. Stayed the night in Franz Josef in preparation for a full-on day of glacier exploration tomorrow!

Wednesday 18th March

Michelle driving in the pouring rain (!) between Greymouth and Hokitika.

Andrew pouring himself a beer at the Monteith's factory.

Lagering room at Monteith's brewery.

Old Chimney at Brunner Coal Mine.

Suspension bridge at Brunner Coal Mine.

Michelle on a random rock on a random beach between Punakaiki and Greymouth.

The Wild West Coast!

Today we travelled from Punakaiki to Hokitika and got a taste of true West Coast weather for the first time - it poured with rain most of the afternoon! We stopped at a few spots on the way to take some of the classic "West Coast" shots before the weather set in. We also visited the old Brunner Coal Mine Site just before Greymouth - site of NZ's worst mine disaster, in the late 1800's. Very interesting to see the workings of an old coal mine and brickworks.

We then drove into Hokitika and went on a tour at Monteith's Brewery. Very informative, but mostly lots of tanks, pumps and pipework. Apparently their engineer is a bit of a true Kiwi inventor - he made both a de-pallitiser for the bottles (completely automated) and a machine for straightening out dented kegs (a big money saver at $400 a pop). Of course, at the end of the tour we got to taste all the beers and pour our own glasses direct from the taps. Andrew took full advantage, and made sure he got his $15 worth, so it was left to me to drive the rest of the way to Hokitika - in the pouring rain - so not fun in a camper!

Tomorrow we are heading towards the glaciers, and hopefully we will either fly or hike the glaciers on Friday.