Wellington – Interislander Ferry to South Island – Picton – Kaikoura – Punakaiki – Greymouth – Franz Josef – Fox Glacier – Haast
The day after the Tongariro Crossing hopped into the van…….correction…….hobbled to the van and heaved myself in – yes that’s a more accurate description – hopped in sounds like I am a gazelle or something – totally ridiculous really.
Thinking of the mountains and hills yesterday, I often ask myself if I were reborn what talents I would ask for in the genetics queue. One would be to be an amazing singer, but if I had to be an animal I think it would be a sheep in New Zealand – not any old sheep designated to lie on a plate next to somebody’s mint sauce, but a sheep who starred in “Lord of the Rings” who would live off the royalties from the film and graze forever in the Shire…..
Anyway back to reality…..
we then made our way to the capital city of Wellington. It is literally possible to eat your way through Wellington and I’m always there where there’s good food and drink 🍔🍩🍝🍰🎂🍡🍢🍹🍨🍷🍸
We started eating samples at the tiny peanut butter factory and I haven’t stopped eating peanut butter even 4 days later after buying a big pot of the dark chocolate crunchy variety…..then came the Wellington chocolate factory – well….it would be rude not to go in – wouldn’t it? After sampling the beer chocolate (what a GREAT combination) we drank hot chocolate and I had a raspberry marshmallow.
We could have sampled a soda in the soda shop but I forgot to mention the “Hanger Flight Coffee” where we drank coffee and ate a blueberry ginger muffin – this was all in the space of about 90mins at the most and I had to skip the soda.
However evening meal time came around and we found a restaurant called “The Library” – another wonderful combination of food and a restaurant surrounded by shelves and shelves of books – paradise for book nerds like me.
The next morning returning to the city of Wellington for more food – a sumptuous breakfast of poached eggs on thick seeded toast, crumpets and coconut yoghurt with lemon curd, English breakfast tea and then hot lemon with honey and ginger. Those people who have been on a whale watching trip and not seen a whale have obviously not been on the same boat as me – what I lost in pounds in India has been replenished by stones in New Zealand – thin to fat – just like that.
The Interislander ferry, a 3 hour ferry trip took us from Wellington at the bottom of North Island to Picton at the top of South Island – a small picturesque harbor town.
The next day we travelled to Kaikoura – a lovely seaside town on the east – with a peninsula walkway, up to whale watchers bay and beyond. Also hosts a seal colony.
From Kaikoura a magical 5 hour drive back through mountains to the west side of the island to Punakaiki, – the drive listed as one of the top three most beautiful drives in New Zealand. Arthur’s pass with an elevation of 920 metres or 3,020 feet is a mountain pass in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand. The pass lies in a saddle between the valleys of the Otira River, in the west and the Bealey River in the east. Arthur’s Pass lies on the border of the Selwyn and Westland districts. It really is a breathtaking ride!!!
Sometimes a short break for stray sheep is required.
On arrival in Punakaiki you can see the pancake rocks and blowholes – and the Chinese tourists taking pictures of each other taking pictures of each other taking picture of the rocks.
From there to Greymouth – unfortunately really was grey as it rained continuously as we passed through Franz Josef and Fox Glacier. Note the blue water at Fox Glacier – wonderful – is that where the mints come from I wonder?
We travelled down to a nest called Haast, which boasts a population of 300 people and offers two tours. We really are in the middle of the back of beyond this evening – but believe it or not, I have spotted 3 Chinese taking pictures – one taking a picture of the other taking a picture of the other taking a picture of a random mountain.
Tomorrow we head on to Queenstown – 8 more sleeps in this cramped space !!!!