South Island tour December 2021

 Had a great trip around the South Island last month. 

Took the car over on the ferry, with bikes on the back, on a warm rainy day, and spent a night with Sue and Phil in Blenheim. It rained for a lot of the trip but it didn't matter.

Heading west, the road runs alongside the pretty Wairau River for a long way.

Drove across the island for a night in Westport, then down to the cute little arty city of Hokitika. Beachfront! 

 The west coast has wild rocky black sand beaches and we can potter for hours looking at beach stones. Quite a few stones from beaches and rivers made it into the car this trip, didn't they Michelle?

Also did an elevated tree walk outside Hokitika. Built by the same people who did the Illawarra tree walk at Robertson. Again, raining. Just us and about six other people.

All down the west coast southern rata were flowering on hills with striking spots of red. This group is a spectacular park planting in Greymouth. Photo doesn't do them justice.

It was pretty quiet all down the west coast, not much traffic and no tourists of course. The Aucklanders were let out on December 15th, just after we passed through, and summer holiday traffic and business increased after that. 

Next stop, Franz Josef village for a couple of nights and we were the only people staying in the motel. Did a couple of pleasant walks at the base of the glacier.

This is Peter's Pool, looking at where the Franz Josef glacier has carved through and retreated. It's just visible now from this famous vista. We have a hand coloured photo taken  from this point in the 1940s and the glacier terminal is at the trees.

The weather changed as we walked! It is the mountains. Franz Josef glacier terminal. 

Then we headed back east, across the island toward Queenstown and through the Southern Alps to Lake Hawea. Had a large old fashioned place there on the lake and did a relaxed and gorgeous cycle along Hawea river. 

So many rivers in the south: big braided rivers, blue and green rivers, fast flowing rock flour coloured rivers coming off glaciers, crystal clear streams, and waterfalls everywhere cause we did get a lot of rain the whole trip. Michelle's bike chain started to rust as the bikes were in the open for three weeks.

Franz Josef river with rock flour and morning mist. Rock flour is crushed rock from the glacier.

In Queenstown, did the touristy steamship ride to Walter Peak sheep station for lunch and a farm dog display, which was actually a bit of fun. Overnighted in Arrowtown and went to a movie for the first time in over a  year (Don't Look Up, clever satire).

We'd  booked a three day walk on the Routeburn Track, but I've hurt my leg somehow and can't do hills so we had canned that walk in November. We've rebooked the walk for March so will fly back down to Queenstown for an autumn tramp across the mountains. 

We'd also booked accommodation and car and bag transport to do a four day cycle along the Otago Rail Trail. But, another change of plans. The forecast was for unseasonal blazing wind and by the time we met up with friends Diana and Robynne in Clyde we were all rethinking how pleasant that cycle would be (not). The upshot was we kept our vehicles and drove between accommodation spots and cycled parts of the trail.

The good bits: over viaducts, through tunnels, along rivers and fields and through old towns. 

Bandits presenting vaccine passes for lunch in the pub at St Bathans.

Central Otago is full of teensy old gold mining towns, quite different to North Island towns. It's big and dry on the Maniototo Plain and the scenery is brown and rocky, interspersed with river gorges and green fields and little towns of old stone buildings. 

Middlemarch, our last Central Otago stop and a delightful farm stay. This was the butcher's shed for the massive old estate, years ago.

Christmas Eve we were out on a boat at the Otago Peninsula checking out the albatross colony. Saw heaps flying by and landing on the sea beside us. Back on land we did a tour out to the colony where those giants are currently nesting.

Spent a quiet Christmas Day with ham sandwiches and a cycle along the waterfront. Nice!

Heading north, we came up the coast past the curiously round Moeraki Beach boulders. We did get some sun.

North, up through Timaru (boring town), and Oamaru (interesting steam punk town) and the west into the interior for a couple of nights at Arthurs Pass village. Raining! 

Waterfalls everywhere. Devil's Punchbowl Falls, a short walk through beech forest from Arthur's Pass village.

Heading west from Arthurs Pass through Otira Gorge.

Across to Greymouth on the coast and then back to Blenheim for a lovely couple of nights kicking back with yummy food and family catchup. Picking redcurrants and blackcurrants and making ravioli.

Back on the ferry, a handy map shows the path from Wellington across Cook Strait through the Marlborough Sounds to Picton. Mish is pointing to our house.

Home on New Years Day. Three weeks away and a great trip.