The South Island, Part 1

There is not a lot of internet access available in the wild Southland, so we are playing catch-up in Christchurch. We’ll get through the Westlands with this post and then the south and east coast tomorrow.


Monday February 15 – Tuesday, February 23

Feb 16 we enjoyed a good day taking our bikes around to a number of wineries, and we found some good ones. Our B&B host used to run a bike rental shop, and when he closed that business he sold off those bikes and bought 10 or so good ones that were really great to ride. Today another couple joined us in the B&B extension at Antares, from Beverly Hills. He is interning at Cedars Sinai. This was our first real interaction with Americans.

Feb 17 and off to the Abel Tasman national park area, staying in Motueka with a couple who have owned this place for a number of years. We have the upstairs; a nice living room, bedroom and bath. And SKY TV for the Olympics. We drove over to the other side of the peninsula to see some natural springs; a cloudy and rainy day. No pictures at this place, tho Dave just missed getting some shots of some beautifully restored Bentley’s that were parked in our car park.

So the big idea for the 18th was to take the water taxi up the coast to a beach and walk a part of the Abel Tasman coast track back to Marahau. Threatening weather but what could we do; that’s about it for activities here. A shuttle bus transferred us to the beach where we found our water taxi; a “King of the Fairies” chap was helping the bus driver with advice to the passengers. This middle aged man was dressed in pink tights, a sequined top with cute little fairy wings on his shoulders and a tiara in his dreadlocks. Strange! But then this area is kind of a throwback to an earlier era. Lots of hostel folks and backpackers with brightly painted old camper vans and VW van type vehicles.

Not very many of the water taxi folks got off at our beach, Anchorage Bay, but we certainly did see a number of people on the track. Some day hiking and some backpacking. It started raining about 30 minutes after we began our hike, and stayed rather wet for the next three hours. The last 30 minutes or so were pleasant as we walked on walkways over the estuary back to our car. Actually, the whole hike was good, it’s just that the wet weather got a bit long. But we dried out quickly.

We suggested to our hosts Barbara and Jerry that we share a bottle of wine and some of cheese early this evening, which turned into a great conversation time with them and enjoyment of cheese, pate, crackers, her special sauce and several bottles of wine. Great fun! Experiences like this show why we enjoy B&B visits, particularly when we can get the hosts to relax and really share what their lives are all about.

Today we drove down the Buller Gorge to Cape Foulwind – nice views, etc. Saw our 1st Weka, one of NZ’s flightless birds. And on to the seal colony.

Now on to Fox Glacier, with a stop at the really interesting pancake rocks in Punakaki. We enjoyed a late afternoon walk to Fox Glacier, and enjoyed a nice time with our charming hosts Colin and Trish at our B&B in Fox Glacier town.

Colin made the excellent suggestion that we drive to Lake Matheson early the next morning to catch this beautiful lake when it would be still and watch the sunrise over the mountains, including Mt. Cook. And he was right – we enjoyed a spectacular walk around this lake and are pleased to share this photo with you. We had several beautiful sightings of Mt. Cook from this area. Colin is quite the character.

CHRIS HATES SANDFLIES!!! Unfortunately, the feeling is not reciprocated. They love her. And she reacts with huge blisters which last for days (make that weeks). Maori legend has it that the gods made sandflies to keep people from staying too long in this beautiful country. With the blistering that Chris is getting from these pesky things, it’s probably true.

Next day on to Arrowtown over the highest paved road in New Zealand. It is much dryer on this side of the Southern Alps. We think the elevation was about 1800 meters; spectacular views up there and we enjoyed our stay at the Old Villa in Arrowtown. Didn’t go out for dinner here; instead we enjoyed several bottles of wine in the yard with our hosts; complemented with nuts, cheese, fruit and so on. A most enjoyable stay. (Is this getting familiar?)

Off to Te Anau and the Rose and Reel B&B outside of town; Lex and Lynn are great hosts and provided good recommendations for dinner and drive up to Milford Sound next day. The weather forecast was for a rainy day and we wondered about how our cruise on the sound would work, but wonder of wonders, the weather forecasters missed the boat and we had a beautiful day. We cruised out into the Tasman Sea past St. Anne Point and enjoyed the numerous waterfalls. This area is suffering a drought (couldn’t tell it by the lush greenery) and as a result the waterfalls were much smaller that they could have been. But none the less very enjoyable. Sheer walls reaching up to the mountain tops 1500 meters above the water; reminded us or the fiords in Norway.

Lex used to be a sheep farmer, now they have a smaller place and primarily raise deer. We fed the tamer deer; one was 23 years old. His principal deer crop is a cross between deer and elk; very large animals that mature quickly. As we have heard elsewhere, most of their venison is exported to Europe. Lex is also a fishing guide; folks come from all over the world to have him guide them to rivers where then can catch trout in the 4 to 5 pound range; a catch and release operation. Lex seems to be world renown; Lynn restricts his guide trips to 3 or 4 per week. (work to be done around the place as well).

On the way back from Milford Sound (really a fiord) we stopped at all of the scenic areas, including a long gravel road trek to see Humbolt Waterfall. Beautiful! The guide information does not indicate waterfall height, but a quick check on Google tells us it is 275 meters high. One of the other walks we took was very reminiscent of scenes in the forests in Lord of the Rings.

Milford Sound, Te Anau, etc. is the most touristy area we have visited in New Zealand – lots of tour buses, camper vans etc. etc. The Southern Alps in Fiordland National Park are spectacular. Tomorrow we will take the scenic route along the Park on our way down to Invercargill and we look forward to driving with no traffic. The south island has only one million residents plus who knows how many tourists – our road travels have been very easy.

More tomorrow! Catlins to Christchurch.