The Innlet north of Collingwood

From Punakaiki I made a sidetrip to Kaikoura driving via Lewis Pass this means that I managed to drive over all alpine passes on the South Island. From Kaikoura onwards I visited the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre in Blenheim before continuing northwards to Golden Bay. From Kaikoura to Golden bay you drive through Nelson and alongside the Abel Tasman National Park. Which is once again a nice scenic drive crossing Takaka hill to drive into the Golden Bay area.
 
The Innlet is a backpackers 10 kilometers north of Collingwood, nice and quiet in the middle of nowhere close to the beach. At the first evening the guests decided to visit the Mussle Inn which is just south of Collingwood. The local pub has some good homebrewn beers, a really special one with a chili inside the bottle, next to that it was a really good evening. The next morning
still a little bit affected by the beer I went for a walk to Wharariki Beach which has towering arches. However during my first visit they were not visible due to the fact that it was high tide. After checking out the tidal times at the visitor center i walked to farewell spit and once again the beach was deserted not even footprints. By the time I reached the car it was almost low tide and I returned to Wharariki beach to admire the Arches. While walking along there was a group who spotted a baby seal. Once again a really nice encounter with the local wild life.

After all the walking of the previous day I decided that the 3rd day would be a more relaxed one. Visiting the chocolate shop at Collingwood and having a nice lunch at the Mussel Inn. In the afternoon I was so tired that I even slept a couple of hours. Before discovering 'The Web' which is like a big hammock but using a net instead. The local stream flows under the web so you can really relax just listening to the water. After discovering this I enjoyed it every day at least once.

In the evening we had a pot-luck dinner to celebrate the return of Jonathan one of the owners, he had been sailing to the cook islands and back. This is a great way of getting to know the other guests as well. In the evening one of the guests explained the basic sitting position for yoga and the plan was to visit the local yoga class the next evening. But before that we were supposed to go search for mussels and go kayaking.

The search for mussels ended up in the discovery of a beach similar to wharariki beach but unfortunatelly no green lipped mussels. And the kayaking was being replaced by a visit to a salmon farm to catch a salmon for the evening BBQ. The Wof'ers (workers on organic farms, working to pay for the stay and food) at the innlet were really fond of backing. On one day Dan the Man and Nathalie made fresh pita bread and the next day they and  made fruit cake. Everyone once again joined in for a joined BBQ this time.

Dahlia (the manager) mentioned that it would be a good idea to book the kayak trip at the abel tasman park. When contacting them it turned out that the trips would only go out on friday instead of thursday and that the 3-day one was fully booked, as such I booked the 2-day trip.

Now I am at an other backpackers near Motueka and on friday morning I will head towards Marahau to start the kayaking adventure.

Pancake Rocks and Punakaiki

The drive up to Punakaiki was one passing a couple of towns. The first stop was at Hokitika, a town consisting of mostly crafts shops at which of course you can buy Pounamu (New Zealand greenstone). Spending my lunch break there was really nice but it was not necessarily a town to spend a lot of time. 

One thing I did purchase was a iphone radio transmitter. In New Zealand radio coverage is not guaranteed everywhere to be honest there are really long stretches at which you cannot receive any radio station at all. Now initially I bought some (2) CD's however after having listened to them a dozen times that became boring as well. But now with radio Iphone driving dinstances became a pleasure again.

The next stop was Greymouth the nearest city up north at which the train of the tranz alpine express stops. It is a nice town but not extremely exciting.

Driving further to Punakaiki presented some beautiful coastal scenery before reaching the actual pancake rocks area. Although not being able to visit there at high tide the views are still really nice. 

The backpackers I chose to spend the night was a series of houses build and completely surrounded by bush. It also provided access to a walkway straight to the beach. So in all this was a great spot to spend the night. Once again meeting nice people and playing a game of regenwormen. 

Glaciers and the Westcoast

On Monday evening Nathalie mentioned that she had to work and as such would not be able to join for the walk to Roy's Peak. Taking that into consideration it was a good day to travel to the west coast. 

Leaving Wanaka provided a nice scenic drive towards Haast (1st settlement on the west coast). A short stop at the blue pools turned into a nice hike. The pools supposed to be a half an hour return trip. Which in hindsight was even less, however after walking for at least 45 minutes I did not see something which resembled pools. In the meantime some other tourists joined as well for the quest to seek the pools. Eventually it turned out to be much closer to the carpark then expected. The pools are really nice and the water is extremely clear you could easily spot trouts swimming in the streams.


Haast is just a small settlement which provided a nice stop over to have lunch. Driving towards the Glaciers was another nice trip. A stop at Fox Glacier was nice although there was a little bit of rain. Travelling from Fox Glacier to Franz Josef Glacier was a small challenge with a lot of curves.


The next day at Franz Josef was a nice clear blue sky day, and the perfect day for a daytrip up the Glacier. After getting all the proper gear (mountain shoes, cramp ons and a good raincoat) we left by bus to the glacier parking. During the next hours we walked up a number of paths created by the guides. The initial ascend was pretty steep. The next part on the ice was challenging and awesome. During one of the optional activities (crouching through a narrow piece of ice) one of the group members got stuck resulting in an extended break to free him. This allowed us to enjoy the magnificent views and also refill our bottles with fresh glacier water. After walking through an ice cave we started the descent, which took another 2 hours. In short the trip up the glacier was great, and the clear weather conditions only happen once every 2 weeks so we were incredibly lucky. 

Thursday was a travelling day again towards Punakaiki at which the pancake rocks are located.

Canyoning in Wanaka

Wanaka offers almost a similar amount of adrenaline raising activities. One of them being canyoning. Due to weather a tandem skydive was not possible. The tour left quite early at 9.00 and we drove for 45 minutes into the Mount Aspiring national park to the canyoning site. The drive in itself was already rewarding, with beautiful scenery of the Matukituki valley. 

The first thing to do was to get the right gear,  wetsuits thermal underwear and gloves. We had to climb up the mountain for about an hour and then the adventure started. The first thing to do was to abseil a 8 meter passage. Unlike the abseils I have done in Europe these ones did not have smooth vertical walls. However the first one was easy and we ended up in the first pool. Now there were 3 options, either a jump or a slide or abseiling into the next pool 12 meters down. We all chose the slide option and to be honest i was a bit scared, but it all happened so quickly and i do not regret it at all.

After a couple of more abseils we ended up at a section were you could slide into a couple of pools. And the next section offered some nice jumps as well. Due to the wetsuits the cold water was not really a problem, and due to the small group size 4 + instructor we never had to wait long. The last few slides offered the option of going face down into the pool, which was exciting as well. However at the end of the tour (we spend 3 hours in the canyon) I really started to feel tired. When leaving the canyon we used a rope swing which was a nice one as well. All in all it was a great experience and I will do this again in europe. 

After reaching the base camp again we had a nice lunch, and then drove back to town. By then it was 5 o'clock and I was really beat. To be honest it took me most of today to recover, and I do have a couple of sore arms. But it was well worth the experience.

The plan for tomorrow depends largely on the weather, either we go for a nice hike (Rob Roy peak track). Or I travel to the westcoast, which seems to have nice weather on wednesday.

Te Anau, Manapouri and the Sounds

When leaving Dunedin Te Anau was the next destination, requiring quite a drive. The backpackers I chose was half way in between Te Anau and Manapouri. It was a nice remote deer farm with a number of cottages and a stunning view. This was a good location to visit Te Anau at which I booked an overnight trip to Doubtful Sound. 


In the evening I ran into Dennis and Sheila again. They are a dutch couple i met the first time at Lake Tekapo, then i met them in Oamaru and now in Te Anua. We played a couple of games of regenworme with some other backpackers and enjoyed the evening.


The trip to Doubtful Sound left Manapouri at noon to return the next day. The trip includes a boat trip across lake manapouri and then a bus ride to Deep Cove. The actual boat trip on the sound starts from Deep Cove. 

During the trip you could participate in one of the activities. My choice was to go kayaking. Unfortunately the weather could have been better, but a little bit of rain was actually a nice added challenge. After a nice cup of hot soup the tour continued to the Tasman sea. There we saw a seal colony and another rare penguin. 


While returning to a safe branch of the fjord the crew prepared the buffer dinner. This was a really good meal, and the desert was fantastic as well. In Oamaru I enjoyed the first tasting of fruit crumble and after having it a second time i am a complete fan. 


In the morning we woke up early since the ship started it's main engines already at 6.45 to start the return journey. Breakfast ended at eight which meant we could spend the rest of the morning to enjoy the fjord. The weather had improved and appart from some winds it was almost a blue sky morning.

Before returning to Deep Cove and ultimatelly Manapouri we spend the time to enjoy the beautiful scenery as much as possible, even seeing a couple of native dolphins. 

In the afternoon I initially wanted to visit Milford Sound however due to fatigue i changed the plans, spending another nice quiet evening in Te Anau.
 

Dunedin

After leaving Oamaru my next destination was Dunedin. This is a city initially designed by Scottish immigrants. You can see this in many of the older buildings. The weather in Dunedin is sometimes also Scottish resulting in more rain then usual in new zealand. Next to this it is a university town with the oldest one in the country. 

Spending a couple of days there was nice. I visited the local cadburry factory which improved my knowledge of the chocolate making process. According to the Guiness book of records Dunedin also has the steepest street in the world, which was a nice challenge to climb.

The train station is a nice building, and i will upload a foto once i have a better wireless connection. 

Oamaru

Travelling south my next destination was Oamaru. While travelling in that direction I passed a Salmon farm. Which produces the best quality of salmon due to the fact that the water is so cold that no bacteria can exist. The salmon is exported to Japan to supply the sushi restaurants. At Lake Tekapo I visited the local Japanese restaurant as well to taste the salmon. In short I bought a piece of Salmon fillet at a real bargain price. 

Arriving in Oamaru the backpackers was really nice and i was really tired, so I slept during the afternoon. In the evening there was a lucky pot dinner, this was really good, everyone prepared a dish and then all dishes were joint to have a feast. Some New Zealand guys made mussels with a coconut gravy, then a Malaysian girl prepared chicken, and I prepared the salmon, we also had pasta salad and we had a really good desert called orange and banana crumble with a ginger crust and a nice cake.This was also a really good opportunity to mingle with the other backpackers. 

On the 2nd day in Oamaru i visited the town, which is known for its Victorian buildings. Visiting an old style (19th century) dutch bakery. In the evening initially a BBQ was planned however due to weather it became again a really nice joined dinner. Having steaks and sausages from the local meat plant. Some local guys working there explained that this was the first meatplant in the world to ship frozen meat and as such has an excellent reputation abroad. So all their meats are being exported, mainly to England. 

The next day I woke up with a slight hangover and as such slept a little bit more then usual. In the evening it was time to do some Pengiun watching. In town there are 2 options to view penguins, the blue penguins are commercial and cost 20 dollars. However the yellow eyed penguins can be seen for free.While going there I was lucky enough to see a penguin come ashore, and later on even one going towards it's nesting site up the hill. A local guide explained that this year only 7 couples were breeding and that the yellow eyed penguins could not be bread as easily as the blue ones. He actually started the blue penguin watching site with 14 couples and now there are 280. After retirement he started to offer tours to visit the nesting sites, however now this is considered to be to intrusive. In the evening we played regenwormen, it was a really good decision to buy the travel version. I have enjoyed playing this game already quite some times in NZ. 


The next morning I woke up sick (sore throat) having a bad night of sleep, and having to visit the toilet to frequently. So most of the day i slept and in the evening I took some asian girls to watch the penguins. And again we could see a penguin near it's nesting site, this time even closer then the previous day at  distance of only 2 meters. 

Today I am doing my laundry and we will visit the Moeraki Boulders and tomorrow I will travel to Dunedin to continue my trip of the South Island.  Honestly the backpackers in Oamaru is so far the most relaxed one yet at which i stayed. It is an old estate from 1880 and the people here are all really relaxed and most of them are WOF'ers. Woofing is working on organic farms. Which is working a couple of hours a day and then you receive 'kost en inwoning'.

Mount Cookiemonster

Day 2 at Lake Tekapo was again a day with clear blue skies. So I started the day with a morning walk to visit the famous church at the lake. It's nice but not that impressive. 

It was a perfect day to visit Mount Cook. Driving to Mount Cook was just stunning, Lake Pukaki is marvelous certainly with the mountain background.
Mount Cook Village is not that interesting, and the food prices are a little bit over the top. But then again the views once again are manificent. We (I ran into Chloe again) decided to do one of the walks there the Hooker Valley track (4 hours) and this was given the sunny day a really nice walk. Crossing 2 swing bridges I conquered my fear to use them. The reward was to see a lake in which broken parts of ice from the glacier were still floating. On the return trip we also visited Kea Point which provides a nice view on a mountain lake as well. In short it is really difficult to describe the beauty of the scenery. My tip just go there!
Mount Cook is called Aoraki by the Maori people, and they also mentioned that the mountain has a face. And indeed you can see some big peaces of snow resembling eyes and a nose and a mouth.

At the backpackers meeting nice people is really easy. Most of the visitors are laid back and relaxed people. At the first evening I met a nice dutch couple and during the second evening I met 2 relaxed Israeli guys.

That is actually the beauty of staying at backpackers you meet so many interesting people.

Bob de Bouwer

Leaving Arthur's Springs I continued the alpine crossing heading for the Otira viaduct. Descending Arthur's Pass was a great experience as well. Actually In the end I visited Arthur's Pass 2 more times before actually heading towards Darfield. The first time i forgot to refill the tank of the car, which resulted in an additional visit just to make sure I did not run out of gas.

The return from Arthur Springs towards Wybe's place was even better then the day before the weather had improved, it was warmer and this time no clouds at all, in short a clear blue sky. Which presented plenty of good kodak moments, as such I stopped numerous times. 

On the return trip from Arthur's Pass I visited Wybe once more. In return for using his washing machine I helped him during Sunday to do a number of chores on his farm. Which was really a great experience, learning all kinds of new things. Starting with driving a mini lawnmower tractor to trim most of the grass in the garden area. Next to that we moved his office and to properly prepare it ground had to be moved by using a big tractor with a frontloader. In short I had a really good time doing things which I would have normally never done in the Netherlands.

Today Lake Tekapo was the destination, and traveling past Methven and Mount Sommers was kind of dull since all the mountains were hidden by a lot of clouds. However crossing the next ridge into the Lake Tekapo valley the weather was super again. Clear blue skies once more and a fantastic view of the lake. I will stay here for an additional night to visit Mount Cook.

One of the things you encounter on New Zealand roads a lot are one-way bridges, these are actually quite a phenomenon. The bridges are usually already build before the road was widened and as such one side has preference of the other.