k8stev, 31 August 2011
New Zealand , West coast 15°

South island, west coast.

Up early to take the ferry over the cook straight to the South Island. On our way to Abel Tasman National Park, we stop off in Marlborough which is New Zealand's hot spot for Sauvignon Blanc, very nice wine. So we do some tasting, red not as good as in Oz. They have a shot tasting bar too and fudge shop, perfect! We stay on Old MacDonald's farm tonight, have dinner and watch a movie.
We wake up to perfect weather, hire kayaks and head out for the day at sea around the National Park. This is the iconic thing to do here and it was awesome. Luckily we had calm waters as we did around 25km. I even got some colour on my face! We stopped at one bay for an explore and lunch then kayaked around a few island where we saw NZ fur seals. Very tiring day but good fun. Tonight we have mussel tasting and enjoy our Marlborough wine.
Next two days are mainly driving, we head to Greymouth first which is a mining town and the hostel is really weird so we get cooking and make a nice dinner. The next day we drive on to Franz Josef stopping at the 'wild west' which is a lot like the Great Ocean Road. Arriving to the resort is very exciting. The views are spectacular!
Today I'm excited and nervous as we have a full day glacier climb. We drive to the start which is rainforest, after a short walk through there we get to the 'base' of the glacier. It looks like we're right there but it actually takes a further 45minutes to get to the base and then another half hour until we're on the ice. So we strap on our crampons and get going on the real hike. It is soooo cool. The crampons are hard to get used to and some parts of the walj are a real struggle with tight caves, corridors and steep hills to climb. The ice is amazing colours and not to cold until you stop walking. It takes 4 days to get to the top but we still make it pretty high! As we get to the top it starts to rain, just in time to head back down which takes half the time it took to get up. The bar help us recover with games and free shots!
Sadly another day full of driving. As we leave Franz Josef, we see the landscape drastically change as more and more mountains start to pop up. We are now heading in to lake territory and we stop and Mirror lake where you can see the reflection of the stunning scenery in the black water lake. We drive on to a town called Makarora which has a population of 40 so there's nothing else to do but karaoke.
We drive on from here in the morning to Wanaka driving past more mountains and lakes. We stop in Wanaka to go to Puzzle world which is really cool and frustrating. Theres a maze which we crack quickly then head inside to the illusion rooms which are so weird but fun. Then in the lobby there's heaps of quizzes and challenges. We drive on to Queenstown where we stop off at the worlds first commercial bungy site where only one girl is brave enough so we all enjoy watching instead.