Touring the west coast

Hmmmmm....

I guess you're all a bit tired of my loooooooooooooooooooooong stories, so in an effort to keep it short and to the point I'm going to just "list" the things Hannah and I have been doing for the last week.

As it turns out, there weren't many WWOOFing places on the westcoast of the south island and those that we like the sound of, were all booked up! So, now we're being touristy for just under 3 weeks until we're on a farm again just south of Christchurch....meaning, lots of travelling and spending far too much money!

So since leaving Murchison, we made our way to the Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki...a strange geological feature where millions of years of sediment being squashed was raised up out of a water and now they look like stacked pancakes! If only! There were plenty of seals there, and during high tide you can often see the blowholes at work! But unfortunately the sea was too calm that day....oh well, it was lovely to see none the less! We also did some more walks and secummed to the idea of having a dessert for a change in the pub next to the campsite: Pavlova! Yum yum!

From Punakaiki we went to Arthurs Pass....the highest lying town in NZ! The towering mountains and the waterfalls that we saw were amazing especially since it rained all night and the day we went walking, our plan of hiking up one of the mountains changed since it was misty and generally not a good idea! Instead we did a couple of smaller tracks around the area and saw some swollen waterfalls! Absolutely pristine!

From there we went back to the coast to a little place called Hokitika where we celebrated Hannah's grandads birthday: fish and chips and a drink to remember him. That was a good evening! Though we kinda froze that evening when sleeping in the car! Ah yes, our car.....it's a second home! most nights we sleep in the car and sometimes we go to a hostel....it's a heck of a lot cheaper!

Since Hokitika, we've stopped at Franz Josef and Fox Glacier....other then absolutely stunning views of the two glaciers (strnage to actually see them after learning about them in geography in what seems likes a lifetime ago!), we did a five hour hike up a mountain - absolutely knackering but definately worth the view! - , saw the sun rise over the famous mirror lake (Lake Matheson), as well as a half a day's guided tour walking ON a glacier! We've also been "enjoying" beeing eaten by the pesky sand flies....talk about insistant little creatures!

Yesterday we drove the whole day: Fox Glacier to Wanaka. So we've now left the west coast and the scenery is completely different here. We're on the other side of the Alps and it's a lot drier but just as beautiful! We came through the Haast Pass which is the lowest pass over the Alps since it runs along a river....Before leaving the coast we did some more walks and enjoyed some lovely viewpoints though the enthusiasm to stop anywhere deminished as we we slowly being eaten up by sandflies! Saw some more waterfalls, snow capped mountains and lots of huge lakes!

From here we're going to the fjordland via the most touristy town of Queenstown....we plan to do a tour in the Fjords and sleep in a hotel on the 29th to clebrate Hannah's birthday! Yey! Luxury!

Ok, so poor effort on the "list" front.