A Road Less Travelled

Hi Everybody,

blogs are like buses, you don't get one for ages, then four come at the same time (or nearly). It is not too long since we wrote our last blog (top ten memories), but we have moved on and although it feels slowly, we have covered a lot of ground and done some interesting/exciting stuff. Hope you enjoy this little update.

We have moved on from Nelson in the North and have basically been heading south at a cracking pace. It took us five days to travel from Westport to Franz Josef, which the locals thought was highly amusing as it is less than a seven hour drive.

We are now in Makarora, which is just north of Wanaka and Queenstown.



Top bombing. Not sure if this is Garry or Ronan, but they had a "top bombing" competition in Ronan and Aileen's pool after a hard day's work in the pie kitchen.

Garry and Alison sunning themselves on the rocks.

Another great registration that we found in Nelson, whilst meeting up with Mark (from Cambodia) and Alison. We were lucky to find them - we turned up at the airport as they were getting off the plane. (Mark and Alison - we weren't stalking you, honestly, but look over your shoulder when you're in Sydney). For those of you not into old cars, this is a Triumph Stag.

Separation Point in the Abel Tasman National Park. We took a five hour walk through the park, which was beautiful and included both mountains and beaches. The walks in the national parks are very busy at this time of year. In five hours walking we met eighteen people. Busy has a different meaning in New Zealand.

This is the Boatshed in Ruby Bay with our hosts Aileen and Ronan. Ronan ticked the box for no publicity, but we will catch him next time. He introduced us to the locally produced cider. It was stunning so we stocked up with some for our road trip.

In Nelson, there is a museum of old cars and "wearable" art. A strange combination. Part of the exhibition includes a section with "bizarre" bras. This charming young lady is sporting one of the designs.

We walked over this, the longest rope bridge in New Zealand.

It's been raining quite a bit so we put up our improvised awning and drank cider. Lovely.

We did a black water rafting trip in Charleston. Not the adrenalin rush we expected but more of a tour through some amazing caves. It was in fact way better than expected and we have highly recommended it to other travellers.

After floating through the underground chambers with thousands/millions of glow worms hanging from the walls like stars in the night sky, you float out onto the river, over some rapids and down to the exit point.

As you would expect loads of stalagmites, stalagtites and columns. Not all the chambers were this height. We spotted a little hole and asked the guide if we could go down it. He said "get on with it" so we crawled through the hole, then on our stomachs and out into another chamber to meet up with the group again. At this point we were told they normally only allow small children to do it. Cool.

The campsites are very busy at this time of year as you can see.

Took a photo of this little fellow whilst travelling south. He lives outside a cafe that sells roadkill pies and possum sandwiches - yes really. We weren't hungry so gave it a miss.

Frank Josef Glacier. We took a guided trek on the glacier. To get some idea of scale look at the people in the foreground.

Good job they provided crampons.

For once it wasn't raining for us climbing a hill. Again, for scale look at the people on the right hand side

In parts, the trek was challenging. We had to use ropes to climb in and out of crevices. This is an ice cave. One of the interesting features of the glacier, is that it is constantly moving and changing. This cave only appeared a week or so ago and will probably only last for another week. We were lucky to get a chance to climb through it.

Good job Alison didn't eat too many pies. As you can see, some of the crevices were a tight squeeze.
After Franz Josef, we moved south (a whole 21 kilometres - no rush), a great view of Mount Tasman and Mount Cook. The Fox Glacier is just round the corner.

Tomorrow, we go wing walking on this plane. Just kidding Mum and Carolyn.

We are taking a trip in this plane up to a valley called Siberia (hopefully it won't be that cold). We get dropped off in the valley, walk approximately four miles over the mountain and get picked up by a jet boat. This fantastic adventure has been organised by our friends Aileen and Ronan. A big thank you to them, we are really looking forward to it.

Cheers

Garry and Alison

p.s.

A strange thing happened last night. We stayed on a camp site in the middle of nowhere (Makarora Wilderness Resort) with a pub attached. The pub filled up with two bus loads of tourists (first time we have seen a busy pub). Somehow we ended up singing "Play that funky music" on the karaoke machine. The machine was soon turned off and everyone left. Very strange.

We are staying here tonight again, so we will rehearse this afternoon and put on a better performance tonight. We fancy doing a big ballad, like "Angels".