South Is Part 1: Picton to Wanaka

Myself and my friends took the Interislander ferry from Wellington to Picton and then drove towards the West Coast stopping in Nelson and spending two days in the Abel Tasman National Park. We drove along the scenic West Coast spending nights in Westport and Greymouth before arriving at the breathtaking Franz Josef glacier. We then made our way inland, through the scenic Haast Pass to Wanaka.

Quick Tips:

If you do not have a YHA (Youth Hostel Association) card, it is certainly recommended to attain one before travelling around NZ. Many significant discounts are available - on buses/trains, in YHA and YHA affiliated hostels, on tourist trips and packages. Certain shops also offer discounts such as Kathmandu - outdoor equipment store's 10% discount. The YHA card costs 30NZD and I estimate that in NZ I saved over 200NZD between travel discounts, discounts on photograph development and savings in shops like Kathmandu!

If you are staying for longer that a month or so, purchasing a car is probably a good idea. Car rental is reasonable - we hired a 1.3 litre Mazda for NZD a day.

The roads in the South Island are excellent in the main, although most are very windy - apparently, a manual car is more suitable than an automatic for a lot of the roads in the South Island.

Best Way To Get Around:

The alternative to a car is to take the bus. The main options are:

Newmans / Intercity Coaches - scheduled coach service between main commerical and tourist destinations. http://www.newmanscoach.co.nz/
Kiwi Experience - works on the same basis as the OZ Experience. Travellers purchase a pass that covers their chosen destinations. En route to a particular location, the bus makes several stops to visit attractions and the hostess on board will book accomodation for its passengers. The service is geared towards backpackers and appears to attract the 'young & single' crowd so much so that it has been christened the 'F%& Truck' by Kiwis. www.kiwiexperience.com
Magic Bus - very similar service to the Kiwi Experience but appears to attract an older crowd. www.magicbus.co.nz/
Stray Bus - again similar to Kiwi Experience but prides itself on going off the beaten track and to more adventurous areas! www.straytravel.co.nz/

On arrival in Picton, we checked into the fantastic Sequoia Lodge backpackers. One of the nicest backpackers we stayed in, in NZ.

The lodge is owned by a very friendly couple who really made us feel at home!

Every evening, free homemade soup and bread is provided in the kitchen and in the mornings good strong filter coffee is available free. The rooms are motel style with en-suite.

Facilities include a nice kitchen, full-size chess board and hammocks on a relaxing verandha. There is also a tv room with a large selection of movies. We watched the only NZ film that has ever been popular - Once We're Warriors - a distressing film set among a poor Maori community in South Auckland - worth watching, but have to say, that all the Maoris we have met are really friendly and nothing like they are portrayed in the film!

For more info see:

This was my favourite hostel of the 25 or so I stayed in in NZ!

Each room in the hostel has an animal theme - sheep , elephant, cat, kiwi, tiger and so on.. The rooms are decorated with motifs, teddy-bears, curtains, bed clothes etc all incorporating the animal's image. I stayed in the elephant room - see the attached photo!

The hostel also is home to two beautiful cats and a large friendly husky dog!

We booked our sea kayaking trip in the Abel Tasman NP with The Sea Kayak Company. This proved to be one of the highlights of our trip.

We set off from Maraha early in the morning - just the 7 of us and our guide. After some technical problems (pedals not working on two of the kayaks) we managed to set off. We travelled a total of 11 kms along the coast - stopping at seclued beaches along the way for coffee and for lunch. One stretch of coast, known as the Mad Mile, was particularly good fun - huge waves threatened to capsize us but we all managed to stay afloat!

We arrived, stiff and weary, at Anchorage Bay around 4pm and met Jane our hostess for the night. She ferried us by dinghy to her houseboat called the Etosha where we stayed for the night. Next morning we headed off on a 16 km hike, along the coast to Onetahuti Bay - terrific walk with some amazing sights. Weather was fantastic -we felt like we could have been on a remote island in the Pacific!

We got picked up at Onetahuti Bay by speed boats - known as AquaTaxis where we were brought back to Maraha. We spent the night in the happening town of Motueka where we had much deserved hot showers and pints!!

The trip cost $160 NZD each but we got a 10% discount due to the size of our group. The cost includes a brief lesson in safetly and kayak use, equipment rental, guided kayak trip including morning tea and lunch. On arrival at the Etosha houseboat we were also served afternoon tea, dinner, a great night's sleep breakfast the following morning and a packed lunch to help us through our hike. The return by water taxi to Maraha was also included.

It is also possible to rent kayaks for unguided trips from this company.

For more information, see: http://www.seakayaknz.co.nz/

puzzlingworld.co.nz

A pleasant alternative to adventure sports, Puzzling World was one of the first such attractions in the world - developed by Stuart Landsborough. The Great Maze was the first 3-D maze in the world.

The Maze is fantastic fun -its walkways cover 1.5km in total, but it is estimated that the average visitor travels about 6km to get out of the maze!! Luckily there are emergency exits if you find it a little bit too frustrating!

After the maze you can visit some wacky places like the hologram hall and an illusion room. My favorite was the Hall of Following Faces - you have to see it to believe it! I don't want to spoil the surpise here.

The cafe area is situated in the Puzzle room - each table has several puzzles on it guaranteed to drive you mad! It's free into this room. Many of the puzzles in this room can be purchased, just in case there is one you haven't completed by closing time!!

We arrived at Puzzling World at 10am in the morning, planning on leaving around lunch-time - at the 5:00 close, we were still pulling our hair out at some of the puzzles (at one stage we suggested going back the following day!)

Highly recommended for an enjoyable day in Wanaka.

To get to the South Island, we took the Interislander ferry from Wellington to Picton.

It is imperative to book this well in advance, particularly if you are travelling with a car. We had hoped to travel by day as the scenic quality of the journey is meant to be excellent. However, we had to settle for an evening trip. You can book tickets via phone. Furthermore, prices are cheaper if you book far in advance.

It is possible to change tickets once booked, to another day / time, free of charge.

The ferry trip is pleasant with good facilities on board, including a small cinema which shows new releases for 8NZD.

The 3.5 hour long ferry journey across the Cook Straits brings one to Picton - a pretty sea-side town.

After finishing our trip in the Abel Tasman NP, we left Motueka and started to head South - along the scenic West Coast.

Our first photo stop was a town called Longford - human population around 12, sheep population probably about 12,000! My boyfriend, hails from Longford Ireland so wa delighted to get his photo taken by the signpost for Longford NZ.

On to Westport - a pretty town on the Coast -again named after an Irish town. Many Irish immigrants arrived along the West Coast to partake in NZ's large gold rush in the late 1800s. Just outside Westport is a large fur seal colony at Carters Bay. Went for a fabulous walk along the rugged coast line, spotting seals and birds.

Continuing down the coast, we were awestruck several times by the rugged and dramatic scenery and photo stops were occuring every few minutes!

The next stop was Punakaiki - amazing rock formations (pancake rocks and blowholes) formed by the eroding nature of the sea. There is a nice walkway which leads viewers to the most spectacular formations and a visitor centre with information on the area. There is also a super arts and craft centre selling beautiful unique products such as paintings, jewellery and pottery, made by local artists.

On to Greymouth where we split for the afternoon - some visited the Monteith's Brewery, others Shantytown - a recreated gold rush town where we panned for gold! Amazingly we all found some - about 3 dollars worth each! Think it was fixed for the tourists!

The photographs attached show:
-a young seal pup about 10 months old busy exploring the rocks while the older seals enjoyed the sun! and...
-the original steam train featured at Shantytown.

Franz Josef village is a small town whose sole purpose is to cater for the tourists who arrive to see the Glacier! We checked in to the Black Sheep backpackers and booked ourselves on tours for the following day. All along the main street of the town are companies advertising full day, half day and helicopter hikes. We shopped around but all were priced equally and seemed to offer the same service.

I decided to book onto a helicopter hike which was a fantastic experience. That involved getting a helicopter ride for about 15 minutes over the top of the glacier - absolutely astoundingly beautiful. We then set down on the ice and hiked around there for about 2 hours, equipped with crampons and ice picks!

The glacier is currently moving at 1.5 meters a day and snow which falls at the top today, will not reach the sea for another five years! We were lucky as the night before we climbed, there was a fresh fall of snow which made the landscape even prettier. I saw some amazing ice formations, crevasses and a beautiful ice cavern.

My friends decided to do a full day hike which was 7 hours of walking on the ice - hard going but worth it. The guides continually have to change the path for this hike - cutting away steps into the ice and erecting bridges over the deep crevasses. Some of the crevasses are probably 200 meters deep - not too easy to get out of if you fall in!!

From talking to people who did the half day hike, I have to advise against it. It is a long walk to the base of the FJ glacier, so as a result, very little time is spent actually on the ice.

The next day we drove towards Wanaka stopping at several scenic spots for walks including a circuit of Lake Matheson (known as the Reflection Lake due to the fabulous reflections of Mount Cook), and a walk through a rainforest to reach Monroe Beach and another penguin colony. We also walked to near the foot of the Fox Glacier which appeared to be just as spectacular as Franz Josef, just not as commercialised.

At Fox Glacier we met Kea birds for the first time. Keas are the only parrots in the world who live in alpine regions and are only found in the South of NZ.

Beautiful, friendly birds, they are incredibly curious and destructive. I bent down to take a photo of one and he flew over to examine my camera and to see if he can eat it. They cause a lot of trouble - ripping camper's tents etc and can even pull the windscreen wipers off a car!! One took a fancy to our sun roof and tried to break in to the car through it!

Every car park in Southern NZ has warnings signs and advise not feed the Keas as one sandwhich is enough food for the day and thus the birds will be able to devote even more time to destroying cars!!

To get to Wanaka we drove from Franz Josef glacier through the scenic Haast Pass. Beware though--during the winter, this road closes at 5pm at the Haast side. We narrowly missed this and had to spend a night in the tiny village of Haast--the hostel had several groups of people who had also gotten stuck. Everyone was walking around like zombies... such a dead spot!

The next day we were glad that we had missed the road as it meant we got to do the journey by daylight--certainly worth it. Along the way, brown DOC (Department of Conservation) signposts indicated places worth stopping at, like the pretty Fantail Falls and other scenic lookouts such as at the shores of Lake Hawea (see photo).

Driving into Wanaka, we were awestruck...Wanaka is a picturesque town on the shores of Lake Wanaka and is ringed by mountain ranges.

The town is full of skiiers and snow-boarders, and the adjoining ski fields (Treble Cone and Cardrona are the main two) are reputed to be among the best in the world. We spent a great day skiing at Cardrona in the sun!

In Wanaka, my braver friends did a tandem skydive from 9,000 feet. This involved a 10-second free fall at 200kph before the parachute kicked in! See the attached photo. Wanaka is reputed to be one of the best places in NZ to do a skydive, as it's a little cheaper than most other places and the views are astounding.

There are plenty of trendy bars, restaurants, and cafes in Wanaka to keep one well-fed and watered. A lovely place to spend a few days and a pleasant alternative to Queenstown.